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Back Argentina to top their World Cup group

Last week we tipped South Africa and France to progress from Group A, so who will they be facing in the round of 16? Group B provides their potential opposition with four teams from four continents - and we're backing South America and Africa to prevail over Europe and Asia...

Argentina ([1.6] to win the group, [12.0] the trophy)
The decision to name Diego Maradona as the Argentina manager midway through qualifying - akin to England appointing Gazza to replace Fabio Capello - nearly backfired as the two-time winners only just scraped through. When he wasn't recalling 36-year-old Martin Palermo to his squad, Diego was sliding in the mud and insulting journalists. So while providing the main source of entertainment for neutrals in South Africa, he should still manage to lead a side boasting the world-class talents of Aguero, Messi and Tevez to the top of this relatively straight-forward group.

Nigeria ([5.4] to win the group, [130.0] the trophy)
The Super Eagles have been far from convincing at the Africa Nations, and it's rumoured that an early exit could spell the end of manager Shaibu Amodu's reign, despite only losing once in 14 games. That was a resounding defeat against Egypt, however, who haven't even qualified for South Africa. Yet they do have a decent World Cup record, having made the round of 16 twice in their last three tournaments, and should be able to pip a stubborn Greek side to second place with the creativity on show in Martins, Odemwingie and Yakubu.

South Korea ([12.5] to win the group, [500.0] the trophy)
Ranked 52nd in the FIFA standings, they'll be labelled as the group's whipping boys, but they're no mugs having remained unbeaten in both phases of their qualification campaign. Recent friendly wins over Paraguay, Australia, Senegal and Finland shows that they can beat sides from any continent, although a 4-2 loss to Zambia two weeks ago should prevent most from backing them just yet. They shouldn't finish pointless, but fourth spot still has their name on it.

Greece ([8.4] to win the group, [200.0] the trophy)
Despite being the seeded team for their World Cup play-off tie, it was still considered a minor shock when the Euro 2004 champions knocked out Ukraine, particularly after failing to score at home in a 0-0 first-leg draw. But they're not labelled the Stoke City of international football for nothing (okay, so we've just made that up, but you get the point) - they're not pretty, don't score all that often, but have a knack of getting the right result. So while they have it in them to scrape through to the next round, it's likely to go down to the game against Nigeria - and we fancy the West Africans to nick it.

Betfair Football predicts...
Argentina will win the group despite their manager's theatrics, at [1.6], while Nigeria can be backed at [1.96] to qualify with them, setting up a round 16 game against France...

Agree with us? Or have we dismissed South Korea too readily? They're the outsiders to qualify and can be backed at [4.0] to go through. Let us know below...

Published: 24 Jan 2010 - Tags: Diego Maradona , Lionel Messi , Obafemi Martins