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The Toyota Stadium in Texas, United States will be the host of the International Friendly between El Salvador and the odds-on favorites Ivory Coast. The Africans are in full preparation for the World Cup, while El Salvador has not played a football match in almost 1 year and naturally did not qualify to Brazil.
Ivory Coast was dominant in the World Cup qualifications, but has not played too well since. The African side has won just once in the last 6 games and is coming into this match after a 2-1 defeat to Bosnia one week ago (indeed, Ivory Coast did not use the best players). They really need a win and a solid performance to come with it and this looks like the perfect opportunity for this to happen. Manager Lamouchi is expected to field the best available lineup so he can evaluate his starters in this last test before the World Cup.
El Salvador is actually a team I know pretty well from one of my favorite betting competitions, the Gold Cup. They lack quality to compete against the big names but they are an energic side and have an amazing player up front in Roberto Zelaya, who scored the last 4 goals for them and is a vastly underrated striker. He will play today but I don`t know if he will be able to make an impact after he was banned last year for match fixing. The biggest weakness for El Salvador is their defense, they concede goals very easily and the last time they played (July 2013 !!) they conceded 5 from the USA.
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Team news & lineups
Both sides will field aproximately their best starting 11 for this match.
El Salvador: Villalobo – Garcia, Turcios, Purdy, Molina – Alas, Flores, Alvarez, Ceren – Burgos, Zelaya
Ivory Coast: Barry – Aurier, Toure, Bamba, Boka – Gervinho, Tiote, Toure, Kalou – Drogba, Bony
Ivory Coast will use an extremely offensive lineup today with the likes of Gervinho, Kalou, Droga, Bony and Yaya Toure all expected to start or at least get some big minutes. Against such a poor defensive side like El Salvador, the Africans should be able to get a couple of goals. Ivory Coast is also motivated to get a win and play good football in this one, so I really like a bet on them to cover the handicap. El Salvador is not in the best spot after not playing for a year, their last results were very poor and they are nowhere near the quality of Ivory Coast – I don`t see any kind of arguments for El Salvador to produce an upset. My tip is Ivory Coast to win with a 1,5 goal handicap. I would have probably bet 10 units on this one, but the odds have dropped dramatically and the value is pretty much lost. Still, even at this late stage the bet is clearly worth it in my eyes. Prediction: Ivory Coast – El Salvador 3-0.
Pick: Ivory Coast (-1,5)
Odds: 1.70 @ Sbobet
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 5.6
Event date: 5 June
