Football Bet of the Day: Follow the Herd and back Canucks

In-form Canada can win well

Canada v Martinique
Sunday July 11, 23:30
Live on Premier Sports 1

A very frustrating week took a turn for the worse in Norway last night, as Brann and Tromso were locked together at 1-1 at half-time, only for the third goal we needed to refuse to arrive. When you consider how many second-half goals these two have conceded between them, you realise why I wanted to hurl the laptop across the room. Thankfully, I didn't, which means I can take you to the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Canada are up against Martinique, and I fancy a solid start for the Canucks.

Canada are a team in form. They have won all six of their World Cup qualifiers, including home and away wins against Haiti, who have proven to be awkward and obdurate opponents in the past. Across those six matches, Canada have scored 31 goals and conceded just one.

Martinique gave notice of their quality when they pushed Mexico hard in a 3-2 defeat at the 2019 Gold Cup, and they drew three of their four matches in the Nations League in the same year, but they haven't played a competitive match since then, so there'll be a big gap here in terms of match sharpness.

Canada have been weakened by the withdrawal of star player Alphonso Davies, who will miss the tournament with an ankle problem, but coach John Herdman still has plenty of quality at his disposal. I'll back Canada -1.5 & -2.0 on the Asian Handicap at 1.9210/11 - if Canada win by two goals, we get a half-win, and a bigger victory gives us a winner at close to evens.