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To me – one of the most interesting groups is Group C. Group C features Colombia, Greece, Ivory Coast and Japan in what is one hell of a tight group. I could honestly sit here and argue for all 4 of these teams to win the group – although some arguments would be a lot stronger than others.
Colombia came 2nd to qualify – and they had the best goals against record. They were absolutely sick on defense, and that’s a great factor for them going into this group.
Greece were runners up in Group G with Bosnia and Herzegovina winning that one on goal difference over Greece. They managed to progress past Romania however. Ivory Coast won in the playoffs against Senegal, and Japan won in their group although with opposition like Australia, Jordan, Oman and Iraq there’s not really much to right home about there.
Let’s see the betting odds for both the Group C Winners, and to qualify:
World Cup 2014 Group C Betting Odds:
To Win: Colombia 4/5, Greece 15/2, Ivory Coast 15/4, Japan 15/4.
To Qualify: Colombia 1/4, Greece 2/1, Ivory Coast 10/11, Japan 1/1.
World Cup 2014 Group C Betting Tips:
A big loss for Colombia is of course Radamel Falcao pulling out of the World Cup due to his knee injury. That is quite the blow.
However Falcao is just one player, and Colombia have a lot more options. If anything all this hampers is their progress in later rounds – I still think they will win this group and as I am writing this 33 minutes after the news came out about Falcao being out – I think it’s worth hoping that the odds will jump based on that.
I still think they will do the business though – their defense stood up very well against some top South American teams who attack, attack and attack. That’s why I am taking them – Falcao will be a big loss against any of the bigger teams and top 8 teams in the World Cup – but against these three teams I think it is easy enough for them.
2nd place is an interesting one. I have to go with Ivory Coast here. They have so much talent and we’re seeing more and more appear each world cup. This is one of their easiest groups yet. They should be able to unlock the defense of Greece, and I just can’t see Japan handling the World Cup at all. They are out of their depth and only here due to the ease of their qualification group.
I don’t know if Japan will end bottom though. They have a few individual players that can unlock a defense, and I’m not sure if Greece can contain them to be honest.
So I’ll stick with Colombia to win and Ivory Coast to take second.
Quick Summary: I have to go with Colombia to win the group at 4/5 odds. I’m also going to go with Ivory Coast to qualify at 10/11 odds and Japan to finish bottom of the group at 9/4 odds.
