BALE PLANS A KNEES-UP
Wales eye World Cup party Super League carrot dangles for hopefuls
PEARSON’S
WALES entertain Austria tonight in a must-win World Cup qualifier in Group D.
After five successive draws, nothing but maximum points will do against a side who are level on points with Chris Coleman’s team.
Wales are 6-5 to win at Cardiff City Stadium, with the visitors 5-2 and the draw at 9-4.
It goes without saying that Gareth Bale is pivotal to the chances of the Welsh and the Real Madrid star is 3-1 to open the scoring and even-money to find the back of the net at anytime in the game.
All eyes will be on the exSpurs man, and perhaps rightly so.
But Wales are more than a one-man team and it will be fascinating to see what attacking options Coleman deploys in the final third.
Burnley striker Sam Vokes has started well for his club in the top flight and looks the most obvious man to lead the line up front.
The 27-yearold netted twice on the opening day of the season for the Clarets at Premier League title-holders Chelsea and he looks a fair price at 6-1 to break the deadlock.
He’s 9-4 to net anytime and 11-4 with BetVictor to score in a win for the 2016 European Championship semi-finalists.
Wales have drawn more games – five – than any other team involved in the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign and I can see the 1-1 and 2-2 correct scores appealing to neutrals at both 11-2 and 16s with BetVictor respectively.
The Dragons have not lost any of their last nine competitive home games (W5 D4), since a 3-0 defeat to Serbia in September 2013 and plenty will be prepared to pile into Wales at 2-7 in the double chance market.
I expect the hosts to be patient before edging a close encounter, and like Draw half-time/Wales fulltime in the double-result market at 4-1, and the Dragons to win by the solitary goal at 6-1 with BetVictor. As for reaching next year’s finals in Russia, Wales are 10-3 to win their group and 5-4 to finish the campaign in the top two with BetVictor. Go to BetVictor.com