Morocco vs Iran

Two defensive orientated teams meet on Friday afternoon in Yakaterinburg’s bizarre looking new stadium, where some seats are actually on the outside, a first for the World Cup and maybe a first for sports. Back to the game and it is fair to say both these sides have landed themselves in a very tough group with Portugal and Spain. Both sides are defensively very solid. Morocco did not concede a single goal in qualification group and Iran only conceded 5 in their 18 qualification games.

With this in mind it comes as no surprise that bookmakers have given this game a goal line of 1.75 goals on the back of both sides records in getting Russia. It has to be said it won’t be a major surprise if we do see a tight game. However, I believe the circumstances dictate how teams approach matches and with both being in such a difficult group. I envisage we will see a more open games than most predict. They will have to play Spain and Portugal afterwards, so is a draw worth much to either side? Surely both sides will therefore view this game as their best chance to get a valuable 3 points and thus giving them probably their only possibility to make it out of the group. With that in mind I am betting the over 1.75 goals at current odds of 1.89, 2 goals for some profit is not a big ask in modern football.

Over 1.75 Goals @ 1.83