Football tips: Paddy’s 3 best bets for Team GB’s Olympics clash with Japan

Our top tipster Paddy Murphy can only see one winner in Saturday's Sapporo showdown.

* All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

Team GB got their Olympic gold hopes off to the best possible start with a 2-0 win over Chile on Wednesday. With three points now in the bag if they get just one from their next two matches that should be enough to get through to the quarter-finals. Japan are ranked 11th in the world but they could only salvage a late draw against Canada in their opening match and will be eager to get a valuable three points on the board here.

So, let’s have a look for the three best bets. This is an early kickoff, don’t forget, it’s set to being at 11.30am UK time.

Saturday, July 24 – Women’s Olympic Football Tournament
Sapporo Dome, Japan
11.30am, BBC iPlayer

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Japan vs Team GB: Both Teams to Score

Much of this Team GB’s squad is made up of English players and Japan have faced many of the Team GB squad three times over the last three years, losing all of them and failing to score in all three. Knowing that they’ve underperformed, they’ve played five friendlies in their warm-up for the Olympics, scoring a total of 28 goals, conceding just one.

Team GB’s friendlies were all played behind closed doors. As is the nature of the side being combined of four nations they’ve not been able to play FIFA-sanctioned games but we saw against Chile they could have scored an absolute boatful were it not for some wayward finishing. Saying that, the more they play together and the more time they train together the better they’ll become as a unit. There’s more than enough firepower in this side to see Team GB getting one and Japan’s recent form has seen them firing them in. First on our list is Both Teams to Score.

Japan vs Team GB: Team GB to Win

Japan’s preparatory results look mighty on paper, putting 28 goals past five teams but it’s got to be said that apart from against Australia they weren’t tested much. As we know this Team GB side is mostly made up of English players, many of them at Man City, and while their most recent results weren’t great they were playing against a much higher calibre of teams; Spain, Germany and France among them.

Team GB made easy work of Chile on Wednesday and with Scotland’s Kim Little, who has 59 goals over 140 appearances for her national side, pulling the strings in midfield she’ll be providing much of the forward play to get the ball to Man City’s Ellen White who has 39 in 95 over her England career. She also scored both against Chile. As already mentioned, Japan have lost three times to much of this squad over the last three years and even though they’re the home side they won’t have any fans in the stadium encouraging them. Team GB have the players and the experience here and they should have enough to take another three points here.

Japan vs Team GB: Correct Score, 1-3

With White already hitting two goals and scoring two in a warm-up against New Zealand, she’s settled into how this team functions. Then again, she’s always been ruthless in front of goal having scored 150 goals over her 266 games for the clubs she’s played for, and she’s obviously the focal point of Team GB’s attack. White will be raring to go here and scored three goals over those three England games against Japan mentioned earlier.

Japan should be good for one as we’ve written about above too, their recent form in front of goal has been incredibly good and the pressure is really on them to do well here. However, this Team GB side are full of Super League names and as time wears down here the gulf in class should become evident. 1-3 to Team GB with the likes of White and Little in such good form is the Correct Score punt here.

Japan v Team GB tips

Japan vs Team GB: Both Teams to Score
Japan vs Team GB: Team GB to Win
Japan vs Team GB: Correct Score, 1-3

* All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

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