World Cup & Royal Ascot

I'm still suffering a bit from jet-lag, but the world cup is keeping me in a bouyant mood, especially with a few bets coming up trumps. I'd already picked Ecuador to be the surprise package of this world cup, and placed a bet before leaving for Vegas that they would win their first match and also qualify from the group along with Germany. Today Ecuador face the Germans at 15:00 BST, whilst at the same time Poland will play Costa Rica. They both look like draws to me, with the first being a score draw like 2-2 and the second more like 0-0. At 20:00 BST it's the final games in Group B, Sweden v England and Paraguay v Trinidad & Tobago. Obviously I'm supporting England in the first, and will have a small bet on a 3-1 England victory, but again they look like similar match-ups so perhaps a 4-draw accumulator could be a good bet of the day.

Last night I went round to see how Twister was recovering from the jet-lag and we watched the Spain v Tunisia game. Tunisia took a one goal lead in the 8th minute, just seconds after we discussed having a bet on them being first to score but Spain to win the match. At half-time it started pouring with rain and Spain made some good subs, we decided you had to fancy them to cope better with the conditions and be the better side second-half so put £20 on them to win at 3.3 to 1. Spain were all guns blazing and looked certain to score after some good chances and spills from the goalkeeper, finally in the 72nd minute Raul pounced on a spilled save by the goalkeeper and tapped in the equalizer, 4 minutes later Torres rounded the keeper to finish and give the lead to Spain and on the 90th minute Torres converted a pen to make the final score 3-1. Good to see Spain cope with going a goal behind early and great to see Torres spicing up at just the right time, I picked him for a good outside top goalscorer bet before the tournament and got him at 36-1, now on 3 goals he is leading the scoring charts and the odds have dropped to 4.5 - 1. There's still plenty of play left of course and several players on 2 goals but if Spain can progress to the Semi-Finals I still think there's a very good chance he'll take the Golden Boot, especially when you consider he could easily have had a hat-trick last night.
The other betting news is that the Royal Ascot meet begins this afternoon, with the 15:10 race being the pick of todays bunch. Takeover Target is a very strong contender and Glamour Puss has a good market for a place.

Good Luck !