***DOUBLE DIME PLAY***
There is a huge difference of quality between these two teams, even though the FIFA Rankings currently show that Portugal is #7 and Brazil is #9. Tonight's game should be an easy one for Brazil, considering Portugal's terrible spot. Brazil is coming from a friendly home game last weekend, where they dominated Australia by 6-0, with six substitutions throughout the match. On the other side, Portugal had a brutal official game for the World Cup qualifying at Northern Ireland, where on a match played under terrible weather (lots of rain), Portugal was losing the match at one point and they were also down to 10 men vs 11 men for 20 minutes. To make things worse for them, Portugal had to travel to the US, while Brazil had a shorter trip and won't be affected by the timezone changes.
Portugal's superstar Cristiano Ronaldo won't play tonight and this is a huge blow for the Portuguese team. Portugal is used to be a squad with some top class players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Pepe, Nani, Joao Moutinho and Fabio Coentrao plus a mixture of players that are far from being elite contributors. The problem is that not only Ronaldo is out for tonight, as Joao Moutinho, Nani and Fabio Coentrao are completely out of shape for several reasons. Portugal's head coach Paulo Bento will have to make some changes in the lineup in comparison to the team that started against Northern Ireland, but Portugal lacks the depth to be competitive against a top team like Brazil in such conditions.
As Brazil will host the World Cup, they are already qualified and so, they are playing several Friendly games to prepare for the competition. Therefore, motivation lacks in the Brazilian squad at times. They even lost against Switzerland in August, but that won't certainly happen tonight against a natural rival like Portugal. Brazil's head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is a former coach of Portugal and so, the Brazilian players will be fired up tonight.
Brazil is likely to start the following lineup tonight: Julio César; Maicon, Thiago Silva, David Luiz and Maxwell; Luis Gustavo, Paulinho and Ramires; Oscar, Neymar and Jô. This is basically Brazil's A team and therefore, with them being focused against a Portuguese team missing their best player and with other important players being out of form, I expect Brazil to easily beat Portugal tonight, who will be on a complete letdown spot tonight, after a very tough and important win last Friday at Northern Ireland. I'm taking Brazil tonight on a Double Dime Play!
Pick: 4 units (Double Dime Play) on Brazil (-0.75) @ -126 / 1.79 on Pinnacle OR -129 / 1.78 on 5Dimes
No comments:
Post a Comment