World Cup Odds Preview: No Ribery, No Problem for France in Soft Group E

Group E looks like a piece of gateau for France even in the absence of Franck Ribery. Ricky Rothstein reports.

World Cup 2014 Group E Odds
France +2500
Switzerland +16300
Ecuador +18700
Honduras +127200

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France
World Cup Outright Odds: +2500

Qualification/World Cup History
France looked like a gone goose when it was 0-2 down against Ukraine after the first leg of its UEFA playoff, only to come back and win the second leg 3-0 to qualify 3-2 on aggregate. And that one fixture sums up the form of this mercurial French squad – their ability to beat anybody is exactly equal to their ability to lose to anybody.

Player to Watch
Karim Benzema. Now that Franck Ribery isn’t going to the World Cup, a nation’s hopes fall on the Real Madrid striker’s shoulders. He can take the weight – Benzema’s talent has been clear since he started playing for his home-town team of Lyon as teenager. In a group like this, he’s not a bad bet for top goalscorer either.

Team Forecast
If France was lucky to come back from that 0-2 deficit against Ukraine, it was doubly-lucky to find itself in the softest of all the qualifying groups in Brazil. France will win the Group and has the attacking power to score against anybody. Whether the French have the mental reserve and team spirit to defend those scores, or react as well to adversity as the aging stars of 2006 did right up to the Final of that World Cup, is a bigger question.

Switzerland
World Cup Outright Odds: +16300

Qualification/World Cup History
Switzerland has been to nine World Cup but hasn’t set off any fireworks at any of them. The last time Switzerland was in the quarter-finals was in 1954 and, while this is Switzerland’s third straight appearance in the finals, the Swiss pretty much got rolled in Germany or South Africa.

Player to Watch
Josep Drmic. Many players have gone to the World Cup Finals as boys only to return as men, and all Switzerland will hope that Drmic is the latest in that list. Only 21 years old, he’s been banging in the goals for Nuremburg in the German Bundesliga. A good performance at the World Cup could see him playing Champions League football come the Fall.

Team Forecast
It would be nice for Switzerland for beat France and top the group but it’s not going to happen if France brings its A-game. That makes Switzerland’s first game of the tournament, against Ecuador at the Estadio Nacional, the one for all the marbles.

Ecuador
World Cup Outright Odds: +18700

Qualification/ World Cup History
Ecuador’s home games are played at Quito, the highest capital city in the world at 9,300 feet above sea level. Ecuador could give a German/Brazilian All-Star team a game up there. It’s when they come down from the mountain that Ecuadorian footballers return to mortality.

Player to Watch
Antonio Valencia. Valencia has been on the receiving end of some abuse from his home support at Old Trafford, but you don’t get play for Manchester United without being a world-class footballer. Valencia foraging along the wing and whipping in crosses will be vital if Ecuador are to do anything in this World Cup.

Team Forecast
Judging by its recent friendly against England, Ecuador will not want for fight or passion. Whether that’s enough to overcome the gulf in class between it and the two European teams is the question. Having the game against Switzerland as the first, rather than the last, of their three, could mean that Ecuador’s World Cup only lasts for ninety minutes.

Honduras
World Cup Outright Odds: +127200

Qualification/World Cup History
The fact that Honduras has never won a game in the two World Cup Finals for which its qualified makes Honduras sound like a pushover. Maybe, but you can bet your life that Honduras’s 1-1 draw with Spain in the first game of the 1982 felt exactly like a 5-0 thrashing to everyone in Spain at the time. Perspective is all.

Player to Watch
Noel Valladares. A team like Honduras, with limited resources paying a conservative 4-4-2 formation, is always going to need a solid presence between the sticks and captain Valladares is just that man for Honduras. He’ll need to be on top of his game if Honduras are to do anything in Brazil.

Team Forecast
For the folks back home, the game between Switzerland v Ecuador will be nearly as important as Honduras’s first game against France. Honduras hasn’t much of a chance against the French, but it will focus on beating the loser of Switzerland and Ecuador. If Honduras can do that, the team and the nation will mark this World Cup down as a success. Perspective is all.

Group E Prediction
France will win the group, with Switzerland also qualifying in second place. Anything else would be a surprise but not hugely so, because it’s hard to see anyone in this Group making much of an impression on the tournament as a whole irrespective of who wins it.