The Telegraph has teamed up with Betway to bring you betting tips, predictions and insights for every match throughout the World Cup. You'll find our recommended bets below as well as a bet we've built oursleves using BetYourWay - which allows you to choose from hundreds of markets and combine them to create your very own bet.
Uruguay v Russia, 15:00 ITV
With both teams already through there is a chance that players will be rested for this and there’s arguably little incentive to top the group. However, we expect Uruguay to approach this with the goal of winning as they’ve struggled to find top gear in their opening two matches, and we think they’ll be able to highlight the deficiencies in this Russia squad, which have been masked by playing two poor sides.
With a front-line of Suarez and Cavani, plus a defence featuring the superb Diego Godin, you’d struggle to find a place for too many Russians in a combined XI, and against better sides Russia have generally fell short. Dating back to Euro 2016, Russia have played 11 matches against teams we had ranked inside the world’s top 20 (we have Uruguay 10th) and they’ve failed to win any, with five draws and six defeats, while they’ve failed to beat a South American side since 1988, when they were competing as the Soviet Union. We rank Russia as just the 41st best team in the world and with Uruguay having won 14 of their last 18 competitive matches against teams we ranked outside the world’s top 20 they look great value to top the group with maximum points.
Luis Suarez got his name on the scoresheet against Saudi Arabia and he’s now netted 10 times in his last 14 tournament starts (World Cup, Copa America and Confederations Cup). That compares favourably to Cavani’s tournament record, that has seen him score just twice in 22 World Cup or Copa America appearances, so we’ll add the Barca man to our bet-slip.
This match may have a friendly feel about it though and neither will want to pick up any suspensions for the next round (bookings are wiped after the Last 16) so we could see Russia rest Golovin and Smolov – weakening their attack – while Uruguay are yet to pick up any cards. They’ll probably want to keep it that way so take a chance on Under 2.5 Cards.
Best Bet: Uruguay win at 15/8
Saudi Arabia v Egypt, 15:00 ITV4
We won’t dwell too long on this match – arguably the least appetising of the World Cup fixtures to date – but both will be desperate for a World Cup win. It’s been 24 years since Saudi Arabia last achieved that while Egypt have never managed one, so we can expect both teams to approach this in a serious fashion.
World Cup meetings between Asian and African sides since 1990 have been very evenly split, with a W5-D7-L4 record narrowly favouring the Asian teams, including Japan’s 2-2 draw with Senegal on Sunday. We see this as being similarly tough to split, with Saudi Arabia much improved in their second match and Egypt very one-dimensional in their overreliance on a half-fit Mo Salah. 10 of those 16 aforementioned World Cup matches finished with both teams scoring and with no sign of a nil-nil in this tournament the 1-1 looks worth backing at 11/2 with Betway.
A couple of side markets to note: Egypt have had just seven corners in their last four matches combined while their opponents racked up 31. Saudi Arabia meanwhile had more corners than Uruguay last time out. And in the scorers’ market it’s hard to look past Salah, who has scored all of Egypt’s last five goals when he’s been on the pitch.
Best Bet: 1-1 Correct Score at 11/2
Spain v Morocco, 19:00 BBC One
With Spain and Portugal on identical records, the Spanish are topping the group courtesy of having picked up just one booking to Portugal’s two. Morocco are already out but they can feel a little aggrieved after having the better of their opener against Iran and then threatening Portugal for long periods last time out.
They’ll have to park the bus if they are to have any chance here but with that elimination in their minds they may look to be a little more adventurous. Diego Costa will certainly hope they leave a few more spaces than the Iranians did, as he has the Golden Boot in his sights and has nine goals from his last nine international starts.
We expect Spain to find life easier than last time out and they should win this handily enough – they’ve won 19 of their last 20 competitive matches against teams we had ranked outside the world’s top 20, covering the -1 handicap in 11.
Spain won’t want to pick up any unnecessary bookings and this could be played in a relatively friendly fashion. In fact, the Spanish have picked up just one card in their last three matches and that went to Sergio Busquets shortly after Portugal took the lead in their opener, when things were getting a lot spicier than they are likely to be here.
Best Bet: Handicap 3-Way – Spain -1 at 1/1
Iran v Portugal, 19:00 BBC Four
This is the first of the final round of games where both teams can still go through, though Iran will cause a seismic shock should they beat the European champions. Nevertheless, they are a very tough team to break-down, as they proved against Spain in their last match and Argentina four years ago – both matches they could easily have escaped from with a point. However, they simply don’t score goals and four of their five World Cup matches under Carlos Queiroz have had fewer than two strikes.
Ultimately, they lost both those matches against Spain and Argentina 1-0 and five of their last six competitive defeats have been 1-0. The scorers against them in those wins were Diego Costa and Lionel Messi and it would be no surprise if Portugal’s talisman up-front were also to find the target. Cristiano Ronaldo has his eyes on the Golden Boot after four goals in the first two matches and he’s scored an incredible 24 times in his last 19 internationals, including the first of the match in eight of the last nine in which he’s netted.
Iran picked up three cards against Morocco and a further two against Spain. They readily conceded possession in those matches, as their opponents had 68% and 78% of the ball respectively, so they’ll inevitably have to make the occasional professional foul and we expect them to collect at least two more bookings here.
Best Bet: Portugal 1-0 at 17/4
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