Group A - Germany to beat Hiddink again
Both Turkey and their new coach Guus Hiddink have reason to be disappointed about once again being paired with Germany after recently suffering at the hands of the three-time European champions.
Turkey had their incredible run to the Euro 2008 semi-finals thwarted by Joachim Low's side in an entertaining 3-2 Germany victory, then Hiddink was forced to settle for second in World Cup qualifying Group 4 after home and away defeats to everyone's new favourite national team.
The Turkey/Hiddink partnership got off to a winning start when they beat Romania in a friendly last month but it's no surprise that Germany are clear [1.29] favourites to top the group following their impressive World Cup showing. They're [6.4] second favourites to win the actual tournament too.
While Turkey have qualified for three of the last six international competitions, they've never done so as group winners, with all their success coming either as runners-up or in the play-offs, so a price of [5.5] looks about right for them.
Belgium are next up at [8.2] yet while their squad is packed full of talented players, including Premier League stars Thomas Vermaelen, Vincent Kompany, Marouane Fellaini and Moussa Dembele, their results rarely reflect that. They've lost to Armenia and Estonia in the last 12 months.
The rest of the contenders are Austria ([19.0]), who haven't reached a tournament on merit since the turn of the century, and whose prospects of pushing for second are hindered by a rubbish recent record against Germany, Kazakhstan ([30.0]) and Azerbaijan ([32.0]). All the odds appear about right.
Can Germany be stopped? Will Austria and Belgium improve on recent poor showing? Share your views below...
Published: 1 Sep 2010
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