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The first quarter final in the Women’s World Cup takes place on Thursday, June 27th.
If features Norway going up against England.
In terms of the “power rankings” in regard to the World Cup at the moment, England are ranked 4th behind USA, France and Germany. Norway are ranked 7th currently with their chances of winning the World Cup at 26.00.
Norway got here after finishing second in Group A. They went up against a feisty Nigerian side and came away 3-0 winners in an impressive victory. They were unlucky to lose 2-1 to France, then had two penalties in a win over South Korea.
That Nigerian game really concerned me and I didn’t think Norway would qualify. It shocked me in that insane game against Australia that they were able to get through. However Norway were the better side in that one, and deservedly went through to the next round.
England have been quite impressive. A 2-1 win over Scotland was followed up by a 1-0 win over the tight Argentina defense. They then rested some star players but still got the 2-0 win over a Japan team that are pretty good.
They thumped Cameroon 3-0 in what was a hell of a noteworthy game to move on to the quarter finals.
England may be without Steph Houghton which would hurt them. She was the victim of a bad tackle in the game against Cameroon.
England are heavy favourites to qualify although the bookies don’t expect them to do it in 90 minutes which is interesting. Their odds to qualify are 1.57 while the odds to win in 90 minutes are 2.10 odds.
It’s a really intriguing match-up actually and probably Englands toughest one yet. Norway showed a lot in that game against Australia with a high xG as they racked up 27 shots with 8 on target.
England were okay against Cameroon. 3-0 was a bit flattering really.
The bookies are expecting a good game with goals to be scored by both teams. England certainly look like they can score in every game and Norway have a good attack.
However at this stage you often see more cautious play. It’s a big game for Norway and I think England will try and play a controlling but possessive game.
I’m going for a small bet on the under and am hoping for a low scoring 90 minutes.
1u on Under 2.5 goals. 1.80 odds.
