World Cup Countdown – 6/1 for an Anglo-Grecian showdown

There’s now less than a week to go before the summer’s footballing extravaganza gets underway and, much like Brazil’s stadium developers, Ladbrokes punters are running out of time to get their work done.

The daily dose of special offers from the bookie has been rumbling on at pace, and the latest involves the beloved Three Lions’ second-round opponents.

Marking the fact that there are now just six days until Brazil v Croatia acts as the World Cup’s curtain raiser, the company go 6/1 that England have one of the more favourable second-round clashes, by facing Greece in the round of 16.

For that to happen England surely must win Group D, as the Euro 2004 champions are a distant 7/1 shot to come out on top in Group C alongside Colombia, Ivory Coast and Japan.

If a miracle does occur – Greece have never made it safely out of a World Cup group in their history, let alone win one – then Roy Hodgson’s men can afford to come second in Group D, which is a wholly more difficult collective of Uruguay, Italy and Costa Rica.

England sit behind the Azzurri and Charruas in the Group D winner stakes, at 11/5, but will fancy their chances of prevailing having won a group containing Sweden and Paraguay in the 2006 edition.

Even without Radamel Falcao, Colombia are heavily fancied to win Greece’s group so a path through as victors looks unlikely for Ethniki, although qualifying as the runners up is by no means beyond them.

They may not score many, but Fernando Santos’ men are hard to beat. They were only forced into the UEFA qualifying playoffs thanks to an inferior goal difference to dark horses Bosnia and conceded just four goals during that process.

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

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