Thomas Muller can be slightly awkward and unfashionable-looking at times but he knows where the goal is and we expect him to find it in the big clash in Group G today.
The question ‘Who was the last top scorer in the last World Cup?’ should provoke an answer without much thought from most football fans, but it’s easy to forget that it was Thomas Muller who went home from South Africa with the Golden Boot four years ago.
Wesley Sneijder and David Villa did score the same amount of goals as Muller in 2010, but by virtue of a greater number of assists, Muller claimed the award to top off a tournament in which, at 20 years of age, he was one of a number of exciting young talents that brought Joachim Low’s side all the way to the last four, where they suffered a narrow defeat to eventual champions Spain.
Now 24, Muller will make his 50th appearance for Germany against Portugal today, when he will be looking to add to the 17 goals he has scored at international level to date. The Bayern Munich man can look a little ungainly at times, but there’s no doubting his effectiveness and he has shown his ability at club and international level to grab goals in big games.
If Germany are to progress from Group G as group winners – something we firmly expect them to do – then they’ll have to defeat Cristiano Ronaldo’s Paulo Bento’s Portugal today and though they are likely to cause the Germans plenty of problems, we think that both Bento and Ronaldo will be left frustrated at the eventual result.
Thomas Muller to score and Germany to win is a very tempting 10/3 and given the possibility that one of the favourites to win the competition might not play with a recognised striker at times today (and throughout the tournament for that matter), we think those are very generous odds indeed.
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