Saturday 21/06/2014, 21:00, World Cup Group G, Germany vs Ghana

Germany vs Ghana Betting Preview

Even though it pales in comparison to the confrontation between Germany and Portugal, this fixture has the potential of turning into a scoring festival. Ghana is a great offensive team that relies mostly on its athletic strikers, but the African nation has always been tormented by a subpar defense. Germany needs back-to-back victories, because finishing second in Group G would be regarded as a failure and an unnecessary obstacle en route to a World Cup 2014 final.

Germany vs Ghana Betting Odds

At Bet365

Germany 1.35, Draw 4.60, Ghana 8.70

Germany vs Ghana Betting Tips

The team that wins the opening game has the best chance of winning the group, but all it takes is one mistake against either Ghana or the United States for the Europeans to slip back into second place. At least in theory, the favorites are overly concerned about the prospect of key players suffering injuries in the group stage and do everything in their power to keep them healthy.

Contrary to popular belief, if Germany wins the opening match against Portugal, they won't need to take unnecessary chances by keeping important players on the bench. They have so much talent upfront and a lot of mobility between midfielders and strikers that Low can easily send a first 11 that is on par with the one starting against Portugal.

Muller and Schurrle are expected to pair up, but if there is one match in which Klose has a decent chance at starting a match for Germany, this is it. The reason for why the Europeans can afford to take a leap of faith with their aging striker is that Ghana is rather ineffective at defending a narrow leads.

The African nation simply can't afford to play defense and try to score on counterattacks, because there is a gap between midfielders and defenders. They are particularly good at one thing, and this is to score goals, which makes the predicament quite obvious. Playing aggressively against Germany is a sure fire way to concede a bucketful of goals, but defending is probably not going to work either.

Key Facts

• Ghana played three friendly games prior to World Cup 2014 and lost all of them without scoring a goal
• The two teams met twice and Germany won both times scoring a combined seven goals and allowing one.

Germany vs Ghana Betting Odds Prediction

Bookmakers are cautious with the odds they offer for more than 2.5 goals to be scored, knowing that this is the most likely outcome. This leaves punters with a single wager worth placing: Germany to win by at least two goals at even odds with Bet365. Even if Ghana gets lucky and scores first, the Europeans are still favorites to overturn the result and cover the spread.

Bet: Germany -1.5 goals @ 2.00 with Bet365