Portugal v Switzerland: Foul your way to World Cup profit with these 13/2 and 53/1 bets

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Manuel Akanji (l) has made a foul in every World Cup game so far

Our football props column aims to milk the fouls market when Portugal face Switzerland at the World Cup - it has 13/2 and 53/1 shots for the last-16 tie.


You may have read that the foul count is down at this World Cup compared to previous tournaments but that doesn't mean there's not value to be had in the relevant markets.

There are still some decent prices around in the new 'fouls committed' markets and putting a few players together can quickly produce a big-odds Bet Builder.

In Switzerland, we've got the team who during the group stage made the fourth most fouls of the last 16. Meanwhile, Portugal were the fourth most fouled.

That quickly leads me on to the Swiss centre-backs, likely to be Premier League stars Manuel Akanji and Fabian Schar.

Akanji has had a foul in all three games so far in Qatar, managing two against Brazil. As for Schar, he had one in his only match - the 3-2 win over Serbia.

They look in for a busy night, facing Cristiano Ronaldo and Joao Felix, both of whom are happy to go down under light contact.

Of particular interest here is that these sides have already met twice this year in the UEFA Nations League and Akanji had two fouls in his one game, Schar four in his. Overall, Swiss centre-backs racked up nine fouls across the two games.

On the Portuguese side, Felix leads their foul count at the tournament so far, committing seven in just 170 minutes. He's landed the 2+ fouls bet in both games.

There's also one bet in the shots market which stands out and that's Akanji to have 1+ shot at 6/4.

A big aerial threat from set pieces, Akanji has had a shot in all three games in Qatar thus far and he's now landed this bet in nine of his last 12 competitive international starts.

As an added bonus, he has been known to try his luck from free kicks around the box.

The betting approach is to play the Akanji shot along with 1+ fouls for the three men mentioned - Akanji, Schar and Felix. That is on offer at around 13/2 and I'll place two thirds of the stake on that.

But I'm also tempted by the 2+ fouls for that trio. Along with the Akanji shot, that produces whopping Bet Builder odds of 53/1 and looks worth a punt with the other third.

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Recommended bets

Back Manuel Akanji 1+ shot and Akanji, Fabian Schar & Joao Felix all 1+ foul @ around 7.513/2
Back Manuel Akanji 1+ shot and Akanji, Fabian Schar & Joao Felix all 2+ fouls @ around 55.054/1

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Column P/L 2022/23

Staked: 153pts
Returned: 187.09pts
P/L: +34.09pts

Andy Schooler

Andy Schooler has been writing about sport for more than 20 years.

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