Star-studded Brazil fancied to scoop Olympic gold at London 2012

With a squad so far ahead of the others remaining in the tournament in terms of quality, it is no surprise to see Brazil as heavy 4/9 favourites to claim Olympic gold.

South Korea stand in their way of an appearance in the final, though Mano Menezes’ men are expected to triumph, and as such are afforded 4/11 favouritism to do so in 90 minutes.

Brazil topped their group with relative ease, winning all three games and notching on three occasions in each of their matches also.

However, they struggled more in their first fixture at the knockout stage, twice falling behind to a Honduras side reduced to nine men, prior to eventually securing a 3-2 victory to advance to the semi finals.

That, of course, represented the fourth successive game at the Olympics in which the Brazilians found the net three times, and the 1/1 odds about them hitting two or three goals on Tuesday night looks an attractive prospect in light of this.

Leandro Damiao proved Brazil’s match winner in their last outing, with his brace propelling him to the head of the London 2012 top scorer betting at 6/4, as those two strikes took him to four in the competition, one behind already-eliminated Senegal’s Moussa Konate, who is a 7/4 shot.

Meanwhile, pre-tournament favourite for the accolade, Neymar, is 3/1 to top score in London, and the set-piece specialist could well be worth taking on at that tempting price, bearing in mind his three Olympic goals thus far for the Selecao.

Elsewhere, punters backing the tournament winners can have 5/1 about Mexico, 6/1 regarding Japan and 8/1 for South Korea, but none have performers within their squad of the pedigree the Brazilians boast in their ranks.

Indeed, some of the most coveted stars in world football reside within Menezes’ squad, and the likes of Thiago Silva, Hulk, and Marcelo could soon add a gold medal to a vast array of accolades won at club level, and they look appealing to do so even at an odds-on 4/9.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.