Confederations Cup Group B preview

The World Cup warm-up event the Confederations Cup starts this weekend with critics still questioning the tournaments existence.

Some see event as an end of season waste of time especially when you consider the majority of sides at the tournament have rescheduled important World-Cup qualifiers to be here.

Despite the complaints, the 2009 tournament was an excellent event which saw numerous shocks and some amazing matches.

After looking at the first group yesterday, here is a preview of Group B, where there are two clear favourites to progress.

The sides (odds of winning whole tournament next to name)

Spain – 7/4 with William Hill

Three successive major tournament victories is an incredible return for the golden Spanish generation and unsurprisingly they are on the favourites to win here.

Vincente Del Bosque, who has masterminded two of the three tournament triumphs, hasn’t sprung my shocks in his squad selection. Apart from the obvious qualities, the Spanish squad is also vastly experienced, with no less than 11 of the 23 already owning over 50 caps for their nation.

Of all the sides at the Confederations Cup Spain are certainly the best and they will want to make up for their 2009 semi-final shock defeat to the USA.

The only worry I hold for Spain is in the centre forward department and they could struggle for goals. 

Fernando Torres and David Villa aren’t the same strikers they once were, meaning Valencia’s Roberto Soldado could feature more.

Gambling Tip: Back Spain to win the whole thing.

Uruguay – 11/1 with Bet Way

Despite struggling in South American World Cup qualification, their team is still an excellent one and it was only two years ago they won the Copa America.

Their 1-0 away win over Venezuela on Tuesday night has got them back into the play-off spot and was also great preparation for this tournament.

The duo of Suarez and Cavani have 45 international goals between them

In Edison Cavani and Luis Suarez they easily have the best centre forward partnership at the competition and should have no problems scoring goals.

Gambling Tip: Back them to at least make the semi-finals.

Tahiti – 5000/1 with Sky Bet

I’d be lying if I said I knew a lot about Tahiti. I don’t.

All but one of their players plying their trade in their domestic league and they won the 2012 Oceania Nations Cup to make this tournament.  

It’s hard to see the Oceania minnows claiming even a point from their three games; however it will be a great experience for the squad. 

Gambling Tip: There is a reason they have odds of 5000/1 to win the whole thing! Bottom of the group; expect a lot of goals to be conceded.

Nigeria – 40/1 with Bet Way

Nigerian coach Stephen Keshi appears to have one eye on the 2014 World Cup after picking a rather inexperienced squad for the Confederations Cup.

Nigeria beat Burkina Faso 1-0 in the African Cup of Nations final to be here

In comparison to Spain’s total of 11 players with over 50 national caps, Nigeria only have one and that’s the goalkeeper. Incredibly 12 of the 23 players selected haven’t even reached double figures in caps.

Victor Moses and Emmanuel Emineke haven’t been selected and without these two it’s hard to see the African Cup of Nations champions getting out of the group.

Gambling tip: They should beat Tahiti, but that’ll be it. 

Cavani inspired Napoli ease past Lazio

An Edison Cavani hat-trick fired Napoli joint top of the Serie A table, as they thrashed Lazio 3-0 at the San Paolo.

Napoli opened the scoring after 19 minutes as Cavani let fly from 25 yards; however it needed a deflection from the unlucky Michael Ziani otherwise Federico Marchetti would have dealt with the effort.

If Marchetti was unfortunate with the first, he should have done better with Cavani’s second as the Uruguayan scored from a tight angle, despite the Italian goalkeeper getting a good hand on the shot.

Napoli killed the game off with 63 minutes gone as Cavani finished well into the bottom left of the goal.

Lazio were poor throughout; however with the game scoreless Miroslav Klose appeared to have given his side the lead, only for it to be ruled out for handball, which to the German strikers credit, he did admit to when asked about by the referee.

The weekend's Italian Round up (Done before midweek games + Inter sacking)

Link to goals and tables from Europe

Previous week's round up
Rest of Europe La Liga  Serie A

Serie A
Napoli were too good for AC Milan in a fantastic game which saw Edison Cavani score a hat-trick in a come from behind 3-1 victory, in doing so firing a warning to their Serie A rivals.

The result see's Napoli top the table after two consecutive 3-1 win's, where AC Milan slide down to 17th after just one point from their opening two games.

Alberto Aquilani opened the scoring with a brilliant header, after good work from Antonio Cassano. However Napoli's response was quick as Cavani lashed home from a Marek Hamsik free kick just two minutes later. The striker turned the game on its head after a great counter attack, spearheaded by the impressive Walter Gargano who set up his Urugyian counterpart who beat Cristian Abbiati at his near post. Cavani completed the scoring as well as his hat trick just seven minutes into the second half as he smashed home after Alessandro Nesta's failed clearence.

Napoli fully deserved the three points and under Walter Mazzari are geniune title contenders. Their 3-4-2-1 formation is very efficient and AC Milan never really looked like winning this match after Cavani had levelled.

How Napoli regularly lined up last year, however they've been improved with the addition of Gokan Inhler and Goran Pandev.

A.S Roma bounced back after defeat at home to Cagliari last week, with a good defensive display in the San Siro away to Inter Milan, as both Italian giants picked up their first point of the season in a goalless draw. The game's real talking point was the unfortunate injury to Roma's new number one Martin Stekelenburg after a collision with an onrushing Lucio. The Brazilian defender tried to hurdle Stekelenburg however his boot caught the keeper and the Dutch goalkeeper had to be substituted in the first half. The game on the whole was a lively encounter as both teams spurned good chances to steal a victory, with Wesley Sneijder's deflected effort somehow creeping wide.

Juventus, like Napoli, made it back to back wins with a 1-0 victory away to Siena. The match winner came in the shape of Alessandro Matri. Siena rarely threatened the Turin side, and the margin of victory should've been more. The goal came after great work from new signing Mirko Vuckenic who got the byline brilliantly to find Matri, who after his discomfort in front of goal last week, will no doubt be pleased to have finished the simple chance.

Udinese joined Napoli and Juve at the top of Serie A as they beat Fiorentina 2-0 with goals coming from  a Antonio Di Natale penalty and a Maurico Isla drive. Despite losing key players in the summer, Udinese have started the season well and Arthur Boruc in the Fiorentina goal was a busy man in ensuring the scoreline was respectable.

Genoa came from behind to beat Lazio with scoring a 71st minute winner. Guiseppi Sculli opened the scoring from a Miroslav Klose cross, before the Argentine Rodrigo Palacio finished cooly to level the scores early on in the second half. With the game looking like ending all square, Juraj Kucka finished the easiest of chances to ensure the three points were Genoa's.

Other results
Cagliari 2 Novara 1
Atlanta 1 Palermo 0
Bologna 0 Leece 2
Catania 1 Cesena 0
Parma 2 Chievo 1