Yigit Cevik
Yield: +1.37%
Hit Rate: +50%
Avg Odds: 3.22
Form(30): 15W-12L-3P+50%
[Picks]FIFA World Cup USA vs Bosnia and Herzegovina
Tomorrow 00:00 [FIFA World Cup] USA VS Bosnia and Herzegovina
Over/Under
12
19 hours agoYield: +1.37% | Hit Rate: 50%
Avg Odds: 3.22
Form (30)
[Picks]FIFA World Cup England vs Democratic Republic of the Congo
619h ago
Handicap07/01 16:00FIFA World Cup
WinEngland
FT--
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Home-1.5 (-)
Away+1.5 (-)
Let’s do the math with a stopwatch in hand. What does giving a goal and a half mean? England need to score at least two more goals than their opponents within 90 minutes. Do you expect them to break through in the first half? With Congo’s defensive discipline, they conceded just 0.6 goals per game in African qualifying, and their PPDA was kept below 9. The space in front of the box is packed tighter than Istanbul rush hour. Bellingham’s late runs into the box are a weapon, and Kane dropping deep can create gaps, but if it’s still 0-0 after the first 45 minutes, Southgate’s slow-and-steady approach certainly won’t show his hand early. He’ll probably wait until the 65th minute before making substitutions at a snail’s pace. After subtracting the seven or eight minutes wasted by Congo’s time-wasting and slow substitutions, the window for England to win by two clear goals is left at only about 15 minutes. Hadi ya, in a World Cup knockout slugfest, score two in 15 minutes? That’s about as likely as the Bosphorus freezing overnight.
Then there’s the cost of mistakes. England’s back line, with Stones and Maguire together, doesn’t have enough turning speed between them to match a Turkish minibus accelerating. Congo don’t counterattack with finesse; Bakambu leads the line as the target man, while Mbemba wins the ball in deep areas and sends a long pass forward, attacking the space left behind when your full-backs push up. By contrast, the +1.5 side for Congo has a margin for error as thick as an Anatolian wool blanket: lose by one and you still win half, draw or win and you take the full return.
