Against All Odds: Young Germans to flop on US Tour

29May 2013

Betfair

An under-strength Germany begin their US Tour this evening as they take on Ecuador in Florida and Paul Robinson believes that the South Americans can avoid defeat.

Ecuador are on a roll at the moment and are in a fantastic position to qualify for Rio 2014 after picking up 20 points from 10 qualifying matches to date. They sit in second place - five points clear of the dreaded play-off position, with a game in hand.

Reinaldo Rueda will be using this fixture as a warm-up for their June qualifiers against Peru and Argentina and it is highly likely that he'll play a strong side to try and continue their impressive unbeaten run. The Ecuadorians are up to 10th in the Fifa World rankings, have won their last eight straight friendlies and haven't lost any of their last 13.

Thanks to the all-German Champions League final, Germany are massively under-strength for this much criticised tour of America. The only familiar faces to the first team will be the likes of Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker and they haven't exactly been at their best of late.

Freiburg striker Max Kruse is set to make his debut for this one and Bayer Leverkusen pair Sidney Sam and Nicolai Muller are in the squad for the first time. Reinforcements will arrive in time for the more high profile clash with USA on Sunday, but for tonight, Joachim Low will have to make do with a lot of young, inexperienced players.

The Germans have drifted plenty in the betting since the markets opened, but even still, at around the 1.9 mark, they have to be taken on given the make-up of the two sides and the fact that Ecuador are seemingly underrated. That's why, at the prices, I have to make Germany my lay of the day.

Recommended Bet

Lay Germany v Ecuador @ 1.9

This match is live on ESPN at 19:30 GMT