World Cup Group B Betting Tips & Guide

Entering their 16th World Cup appearance and a national record seventh straight, England are entering the tournament with a lot of pressure on them as group favourites and the fourth-best odds at winning the tournament.

England came through their qualification group with ease, winning eight and drawing twice, scoring 39 goals, the most out of anyone in UEFA qualification whilst also conceding only three goals, the joint 2nd least in UEFA qualification.

Harry Kane was the joint top scorer in qualification and after winning the golden boot in his first World Cup in 2018, he is now the favourite to win the golden boot again in Qatar and if England are to go far in the tournament, he will have to be the main cog in that.

England are entering the tournament on a run of six games without a win, which means this tournament is coming with people doubting their ability, but after reaching the semi-final and final in their past two major tournaments, the team has shown it has the ability all over the pitch to go deep into tournaments.

If England are to be successful, their defence will be the reason, they only conceded two goals during the Euros in 2021, both coming in the semi-final and final, so if they repeat their defensive success in this tournament, they will have a good chance of winning.

After missing out on the last World Cup in Russia for the first time since 1986, USA are back on the world stage and are currently tipped to get out of the group but they have a very far chance to make it deep into the tournament with the 16th best odds of lifting the trophy.

In their ten previous tournaments, USA’s best finish was in the inaugural tournament in 1930, where they placed third and in their run of seven straight finals appearances, the furthest they reached was the quarter-finals in 2002.

USA did go through some struggles in qualification, gaining automatic qualification on goal difference over Costa RIca, but the difference for USA entering this tournament is that they have quite a few players who have had a lot of experience in the top leagues.

When they failed to qualify in 2018, only five players in their starting XI had the experience of playing in a European League, whereas in their last game, only two players didn’t have experience of a top five European League, with multiple players having Champions League experience which could become invaluable to their team.

Whilst winning the tournament is very unlikely, they have a lot of talented players like Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Giovanni Reyna to cause some upsets and exceed expectations if they all live up to their potential together.

After qualifying for the World Cup for the first time since 1958, there is a lot of excitement in Wales right now, but right now they are tipped to not make it out of the group and have the 20th-best odds at winning the tournament.

At their only tournament in 1958, they did make it out of the group, drawing all of their games before beating Hungary in a play-off game, but they had the bad luck of playing Brazil in the quarter-final where a 17-year old Pelé scored the only goal of the game to knock them out.

Wales were very impressive in qualification, going unbeaten in their last seven games after losing their opening bout to Belgium and it was a 1-1 draw with Belgium in the final group game which qualified them for the play-offs and with wins over Austria and Ukraine in the play-offs with all goals from Gareth Bale, they gained qualification to their first World Cup in 64 years.

Whilst doubted to make it out of the group, their past two European Championships have shown that their squad togetherness along with a few great talents can get them out of the group and despite struggling for LAFC, Gareth Bale will have a lot of rest entering this tournament and everyone knows he puts a lot more energy into Wales than his club side and with the rest at 33 years old, this could be his last hurrah as a Wales player to perform at a major tournament, which could make him very dangerous.

Entering their third straight World Cup finals appearances, Iran are not favoured at all to do well, being tipped to finish bottom of the group with the 22nd best odds at winning the tournament despite finishing top in all their rounds of qualification and climbing to 22nd in the FIFA rankings.

In their previous five appearances at the World Cup, Iran have failed to get out of the group, winning only two of their 15 games, however, this World Cup there is more hope, with the emergence of Mehdi Taremi since the last World Cup.

Taremi at 30 years old has hit his prime in Portugal for Porto and he is not only thriving in the league, scoring 41 goals and assisting 27 times in the past two and a half seasons, but has shone in the Champions League this season, scoring five goals and grabbing two assists in five games and will definitely be one to watch at the World Cup.

With the reappointment of Carlos Queiroz as manager, Iran will definitely be tough to beat as they will set up very defensive, shown at the last World Cup, only conceding twice in the group, to Spain and Portugal, and in the two games since his reappointment, they have beat Uruguay and drawn with Senegal, showing they can be an underrated threat to upset a few teams in this group and potentially make it to the knockout stages.