Two pretty disappointing performances yesterday from Brazil and Belgium. In the end Belgium were able to triumph but that was thanks to Felliani. I actually think they could do with him playing the full 90 mins in that deep lying midfield role doing the simple things. Winning the ball, playing simple passes and probably committing loads of fouls. He might not be in the best 4 or 5 midfield players that they have but he would give them better balance and also if they need the option of him getting forward he can.

International football is completely different to club football and players do not gel as well as they do at clubs as they don’t play as well together. This means that other aspects of play become more important such as free kicks and even crosses as it does not require a deep understanding between the players to do successfully.

Neymar had a fair few bad games for Barcelona last season and we saw him do it again last night. His confidence is not what it was and it’s a lot for him to carry that team when he is not on the top of his game. I do believe frustration will get the better of him at some stage and he will pick up one more yellow. I really can’t see Brazil winning this and I worry about the impact of them going out in the last 16 or the quarters. The protests will increase as they will have wasted all this public money on a World Cup they won’t even have done well in. Big Phil makes some odd decisions and he will surely be heavily criticised as well. Such a shame Felipe Luis did not go to the World Cup as he is a better left back than Marcelo and Marcelo could even play in midfield, although he looks to be out of sorts at the moment. That own goal in the first game looks to have dented his confidence. How many of the Brazilian team are coming into this tournament on the back of a good season?

Spain play again today and as I said on the day 4 round up that price of 1.75 on them was way too high. A best price of 1.57 now and I can see a comfortable solid win from them.  Cameroon v Croatia will be interesting and is a very important match as it’s a must win for Croatia really based on Mexico drawing last night and they will need to win both matches.

Yesterdays results

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0/4 :: -4

Todays bets

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