Holland vs Japan – Oranjes will secure first place with win
Published:Holland and Japan both won their opening games with clean sheets, and now face each other in a battle for Group E’s top spot. The game kicks off at 3pm.
Despite the Asian side’s impressive performance in toppling Cameroon 1-0, it is the Oranjes who will be anticipating victory. They are 7/1 joint-fourth favourites to win the World Cup.
Holland’s 2-0 win over Denmark was their fifth victory on the bounce and extended their run of games unbeaten to 20. They are 2/5 to beat Japan.
Bert Van Marwijk’s side were a little slow to start against the Danes but used the fortunate opening goal as a platform to play more freely and showed hints of their beguiling skill in the last 20 minutes.
Dirk Kuyt, whose clincher came with five minutes to go, is 5/1 to score last here. Indeed a 2-0 victory over a decent Danish team, while not playing their best, bodes well for future situations.
A sparkling cameo from young winger Eljero Elia (12/5 to score at any time) showed Holland’s creative strength in depth and with Arjen Robben still needing time to fully recover from a hamstring injury, the Hamburg player could push Rafael Van de Vaart (also 12/5) for a starting place.
Japan’s surprise 1-0 win owed much to an organised defensive display and the team does have the potential to hold the Dutch to a half-time 0-0. It’s 6/5.
Takeshi Okada’s side were fairly limited going forward, though, and it seems highly unlikely they’ll be able to breach the Holland defence as simply as they did Cameroon’s.
Keisuke Honda benefitted from some slack marking and is 12/1 to score first in this match too.
Holland only let in two goals during qualifying and have conceded just four in their last ten games. It’s 8/13 to another Dutch clean sheet.
Expect Robin Van Persie to improve and Wesley Sneijder to continue his imperious form and those two could well be the goal getters in a 2-0 Holland win. It’s a 5/1 shot.
How do you see the game going? Japan are a generous 7/1 to beat the Dutch and 12/1 to get a repeat 1-0 win. See the full Holland v Japan match betting market.
