TUNISIA v UKRAINE, SAUDI ARABIA v SPAIN - TUNISIA TO MAKE A POINT
David John

After a spanking at the hands of Spain in their World Cup opener, Ukraine got the campaign back on track - and cancelled out a hefty goal deficit - by beating Saudi Arabia 4-0.

The question now for punters is whether they can repeat that dominating display against Tunisia on Friday, a team that could also reach the next phase with three points.

Oleg Blokhin's side knew they had a job to do against the Saudi's in Hamburg and to be fair, did not look in any danger after opening the scoring on four minutes to settle the nerves.

The introduction of Maxym Kalinichenko to the line-up made a huge difference and his delivery from set-pieces had the opposition's backline constantly in whirl.

Goals from Sergei Rebrov and Andrei Shevchenko were also just what the doctor ordered.

The former's name may well be mud at Tottenham and West Ham but he looked back in top form and visually grew in confidence after his first-half strike from distance.

Tunisia were in front for much of their match with Spain before collapsing to a 3-1 defeat.

Their previous encounter with Saudi Arabia should have yielded three points but a lacklustre second-half show saw them eventually grateful to scramble a late 2-2 draw.

I have little doubt that sort of dismal effort will not be repeated with survival now on the line but bookmakers still make them as big as 9/2 to claim a maximum return.

But they could well do enough to frustrate Ukraine though and a point each - good enough for the latter - looks the safe bet.

It is top versus bottom in the other fixture and I doubt Saudia Arabia will be anywhere near good enough whatever side Luis Aragones puts on the field.

Sporting Odds go as short as 1/7 for the Spaniards to maintain their perfect record in the group as their rivals seemed to regress badly from that lively opener against Tunisia.

Lack of organisation in defence and the fact that goal threat Sami Al Jaber can only manage the closing 15 minutes or so suggests the top boys in Group H will be out of sight before his introduction.

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By Bettingzone.co.uk
Used with permission.