International
2007-12-12 - Etoile Sportive vs Boca Juniors
A Sports Betting Pick by Romerz
FIFA Club World Cup 2007
12 December 2007 – 19.30 (local time)
National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan
Its now down to the last 4 and the remaining confederations left are AFC, UEFA, CAF and CONMEBOL. The 1st of the semifinals sees Etoile (Tunisia) representing CAF taking on Boca Juniors (Argentina) representing CONMEBOL.
This will be the 1st match for Boca whilst it will be the 2nd for Etoile in the tournament. (Link to FIFA Site page)
Etoile Sportive
Etoile reached the semifinals by eliminating Pachuca of Mexico representing CONCACAF. In that match, it was an upset of sorts as Pachuca was considered the favorite but Etoile managed to score a goal from 5 shots on goal whereas Pachuca failed to score from their 7 shots on goal.
In this match Pachuca had total control of the 1st half but their forwards wasted chances created despite coming close. Etoile managed to keep the score goaless going into halftime partly due to some good defending and goalkeeping and some poor finishing by Pachuca.
In the 2nd half, it was pretty much the same with Pachuca keeping up the pressure and even had a goal disallowed for offside. However, with 5 mins to play, Etoile made Pachuca pay for their wastefulness in front of goal when off a nifty counter-attack, Ghanaian Moussa Narry caught a wicked deflection off Leobardo Lopez to see his 35-yard shot slip past the Pachuca keeper.
Boca Juniors
Boca qualified for this tournament by beating Gremio of Brazil in this year's Libertadores final, winning both legs without conceding a single goal and scoring a total of 5 instead. This has meant that for the 1st time since its inception, the tournament will not feature a Brazilian team.
Boca finished 2nd in last season’s Argentine Primera A and are currently 4th in the league for this season with statistics of P19 W9 D4 L6 F32 A18. In their last match in the Primera A before travelling to Japan, they managed to hold leaders Lanus to a 1-1 draw on 2 December.
Boca’s main goal threat will be Martin Palermo, who is Boca’s top goal scorer with 13 goals in Primera A and he is also the 3rd leading scorer of the Argentine league. However, Juan Roman Riquelme, who recently moved from Villarreal to Boca Juniors, will be ineligible due to article 8 of the tournament’s rules.
Analysis
Teams representing CONMEBOL have won all 3 previous editions of this tournament. In fact, long before this tournament kicked off, it was already touted that the final will be between UEFA and CONMEBOL.
We all know the quality of players that Argentina produces as they play in some of the top leagues in Europe. I would venture to say that some of the players playing with top clubs in Argentina are also close to or of the same standards as those more renowned players.
Boca Juniors must surely be rated as one of the biggest and most ambitious club from Argentina and would surely want to do as well, if not better, than their Brazilian counterparts who won all 3 previous editions of this tournament.
I would rate Argentinean club football at a much higher level than Mexico’s and given that Pachuca of Mexico could actually have won the quarterfinal against Etoile, if not for some poor finishing, I think this will be 1 match too far for Etoile.
Coupled with the fact that Boca has had 1 whole week to prepare for this match whilst Etoile just played against a dominant Pachuca 3 days ago, I’m of the opinion that Etoile will have to endure another 90 mins of dominance by their opponents whom I don’t think will be as wasteful as Pachuca in front of goal.
Verdict
BEST BETTING TIP :
10/10 units on Boca Juniors @ 1.284/10 units on HT/FT Boca/Boca @ 1.75
1/10 units on Martin Palermo – anytime goalscorer @ 2.00
(All odds from Bet365)
