Weekend Review: World Cup minnows “the toast of the trading room” 

Curaçao and Cape Verde’s astonishing draws against Ecuador and Uruguay, respectively, gave the bookmakers another World Cup boost as the minnows continued to surprise the punters.

In Cape Verde’s 2-2 draw (4/1) against Uruguay, Kevin Pina opened the scoring, before Maximiliano Araujo and Agustin Canobbio score on the stroke of half time to give Uruguay a 2-1 lead.

Hélio Varela pulled Cape Verde level with 30 minutes to go, neither team able to find a winner and giving the Blue Sharks a chance to progress to the knockout stages.

The island nation previously drew 0-0 with Spain in their opening World Cup game.

Curaçao goalkeeper Eloy Room was in fine fettle as he kept out Ecuador’s 15 shots on target in another goalless stalemate (6/1), as the Caribbean side bounced back after their 7-1 trouncing at the hands of Germany.

Betfred’s Alan Firkins said: “Customers and staff alike are loving this 23rd FIFA World Cup. Cape Verde holding the mighty Spain to a 0-0 stalemate is perhaps the trading and footballing highlight so far, but there have been several draws, some more surprising than others, and they are rarely bad news for the layers.”

Bet365’s Steve Freeth added: “There was some negativity towards the 48-team format, but the likes of Curaçao and Cape Verde have been the toast of the trading room with some coupon-busting performances.”

Belgium could be on the brink of elimination after a dour 0-0 draw with Iran was proceeded by a 1-1 draw with Egypt. Defender Nathan Ngoy was sent off for the European side, who started Kevin de Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku in Los Angeles.

Freeth added: “We were doffing our caps to Curaçao keeper Eloy Room after he kept out Ecuador’s 15 shots on target as the pokes failed to score in Kansas, but we finished in the early hours of Sunday morning with Japan scoring four against Tunisia.

“Belgium backers were once again left frustrated with the team drawing again, this time to Iran. This was quickly followed by Uruguay drawing with Cape Verde as we clawed back the Spain losses.”

Away from the shocks, Brazil (1/10) and Spain picked up their first wins of the tournament, the former beating Haiti 3-0 thanks to a brace from Manchester United’s Matheus Cunha and Vinícius Júnior grabbing his second goal of the tournament.

Spain put their goalless draw against Cape Verde behind them, smashing four past Saudi Arabia without reply.

Teenage sensation Lamine Yamal grabbed his first World Cup goal, as Mikel Oyarzabal scored two goals in three minutes. Hassan Altambakti’s own goal sealed the result for the reigning European champions.

Scotland’s joy after their opening game victory was short-lived, as they were downed 1-0 by Morocco (7/10) – Ismael Saibari adding to his tally after finding the back of the net in the opening fixture against Brazil.

Meanwhile, Turkey were the first country to be sent home following their 1-0 defeat to 10-man Paraguay (5/2), a positive result for bookmakers.

Firkins said: “Scotland defeated Haiti 1-0 to start their campaign off well but had no luck at all with the dreaded VAR in their 1-0 loss to Morocco.

“John McGinn had a huge penalty shout turned away leaving many commentators wondering quite how that could be.”

Freeth added: “Scotland are still odds-on to qualify to the knockout stages despite their narrow defeat to Morocco.

“It was a good result for accumulators with Morocco obliging, as well as Ismael Saibari scoring.

“We did have a result in the late game, as the not-so-dark horses Turkey once again found themselves heading home early after failing to convert any of their 33 shots against 10-men Paraguay.

“Deniz Undav continued his good form for Germany by scoring twice off the bench when coming on for Jamal Musiala. We had over 40,000 bets involving Musiala to score anytime and 1,300 on him to score a brace.”

FDJ United’s Ali Gill confirmed it was a positive weekend for bookmakers, calling Belgium’s draw one of the “best results” of the tournament so far and highlighting the US’ (1/2) 2-0 win against Australia.

He said: “While there were a few bits for punters to cheer about over the weekend, overall fair to say this one went the way of the layers.

“Belgium being held to a 0-0 draw with Iran was one of the best results of the tournament in the early stages so far, while Morocco only putting one past Scotland and the US versus Australia game staying below the goals line were also great results.

“Players did come out ahead in the goalfest as Netherlands beat Sweden 5-1, while a last-minute winner for Germany certainly wasn’t cheered at all in the trading room.

“But the 11pm game on Sunday night finishing 2-2 between Uruguay and Cape Verde was a great was to sign off the European weekend.”