The knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup begin on Saturday afternoon when the Netherlands and USA battle it out to open up the round of 16 action, with both teams very much having their eye on securing a quarter final spot.
The Netherlands were victorious in two of their three matches to top Group A while USA went through Group B undefeated to finish second to England so something has to give over the course of the 90 minutes and beyond.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the BBC 1 channel in the UK with the build-up to the first knockout game beginning at 2.30pm with kick off taking place at 3pm.
Netherlands
Although they won two and drew the other of their three group matches, I don’t think anyone thinks we saw anything like the best of the Dutch in the first phase of the tournament. Often teams creep through the group stage and then look to flourish in the knockout stages and the one thing in the favour of the Netherlands is they certainly didn’t exert themselves in those opening three games, so they should have a lot more in the tank for this part of the event.
The big doubt over the Dutch so far in the competition is what they have in forward areas. So far we’ve only really seen Cody Gakpo show up in that part of the pitch. They have been building up the fitness of Memphis Depay the longer the campaign has gone on and they could really do with their star man coming to the party here. The positive is that defensively they look strong and in Andries Noppert they have a sleeper for the Golden Glove award between the sticks.
USA
USA have made it through to this part of the tournament when maybe they were not expected to. They have brought an energy to proceedings which has made them tough to play against and took advantage of two poor teams in their group phase to make it into this round of 16 clash. One positive USA have from the group phase is that they had to win their final game so they have played with the pressure of the jeopardy of losing.
While USA have done well to make it through to the knockout stages, you’ve got to think if they are going to go any further they simply have to offer up more quality in the forward third. If Christian Pulisic doesn’t shine you look at their side and wonder where goals are going to come from. He has scored one of the two USA goals and assisted the other in the tournament and they need others to contribute. USA have only conceded one goal in three games though.
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Team News
Louis van Gaal was keeping his cards close to his chest over whether Memphis Depay would feature from the start in this encounter. Matthijs de Ligt is likely to come back into the defence after he was rested for the previous game as he was on a yellow card.
USA boss Gregg Berhalter has confirmed that Christian Pulisic is fit to play in this match despite the injury he picked up against Iran last time out. Things are not looking so good for Josh Sargent though who is likely to miss out.
Betting
I think we are in for a tight and tense encounter to open up the proceedings. As I’m on them outright I hope the Dutch can find a bit of magic to open up this USA side and come out on top but I would not be surprised to see this one going all the way because there is a lack of standout depth in terms of quality at the top end of the pitch within both these teams. If Memphis Depay isn’t fully fit to have a major impact then the Netherlands will rely on Cody Gakpo while it is all about Chrisian Pulisic for USA.
Both teams have shown that they are pretty solid defensively. They have only conceded one goal in their three matches to date and while you could argue both had soft groups, with the exception of USA who had England in their group but England were timid and stale in that game, the opposition threat isn’t exactly enormous in this game. I suspect we might see two sides who cancel each other out here and the longer it goes on the more they will fear losing rather than be brave to go and win so a small bet on each team to win on penalties could be the way to open up the knockout phase.
Tips
Back Netherlands to win on penalties for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with BetVictor
Back USA to win on penalties for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with BetVictor
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