15th November 2013: 7:45pm
World Cup playoffs don't come more exciting than this really, do they? Not only are Sweden and Portugal pretty big names in the field of international football, each is also home to two of the best footballers of their generation: Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
While there will be other top quality players on show, all eyes will be on these two powerhouses as they attempt to lead their country to the finals in Brazil next summer. And if anyone is capable of turning on the magic when it really matters, it's these two.
We can't wait!
Portugal to edge first encounter of the Swede kind
Portugal are favourites for this one, given their home advantage and obvious strengths in midfield and attack. The boys in dark red are 4/6 with Betfred to win on Friday, while their opponents in yellow are 9/2 with SkyBet. The draw is 29/10 with BetVictor.
This first game between the two will undoubtedly be the tight one of the pair. While Portugal will want to try and make the most of their home advantage, they will be wary about the threat Sweden pose. So with that in mind, we fancy a narrow Portugal win by the one goal here, which can be found at a very tasty 13/5 with Ladbrokes.
If you fancy having a pop at the scoreline as well, we think 2-1 to Portugal looks very promising. Both teams have goals in them, but Portugal have the better all-round quality, plus home advantage. The 2-1 Portugal win is 9/1 with BetVictor.
Battle of the Best
As good as we are at tipping, sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and admit there are players out there who are just unreadable. Anything could happen on Friday night: Zlatan could get three, Cristiano could get four. Neither could score at all. These two are at the top of their game right now, but competitive international football can still pose somewhat of a kryptonite to them.
Nevertheless, we're going to keep faith with them, because if you can't bank on Ronaldo and Zlatan to score, what can you believe in life? Ibrahimovic is 13/2 with Bet365 to get the first goal on Friday which we like the look of, while Unibet have an offer of 9/2 on Ronaldo scoring two or more goals.
That's how good he is right now: they're only offering 9/2.
If you have an outrageous feeling that one of these two might turn on the absolute swagger and get a hat-trick, we can point you in the right direction: Ronaldo is 14/1 with Stan James to get a hat-trick (madness, it's SO short) and Zlatan is 80/1 with Paddy Power. Like we said, you never know, right?
So... what's left?
That deals with the two big boys, anyway. We also fancy both teams to score, which is 11/10 with William Hill at the moment. Leading on from that, over 2.5 goals looks promising as well: Bet365 will offer you 21/20 on that.
Finally, exactly 2-3 goals in the game is being offered at 10/11 by Paddy Power. Barring a masterclass by both Zlatan and Ronaldo, expect that amount.
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Click to ClaimSam publishes regular feature and tips pieces for Howtobet4free. He has a blog, crackingjabulanis.blogspot.co.uk, and can be found on Twitter by following @Gaytski.
