If you glance at the World Cup probabilities you have to go down a little bit to get at defending champion Italy.

The Italians are not getting a lot of respect in World Cup gambling despite the fact that they won the championship 4 years ago.

World Cup prospects list Italy at 10.5 to 1 to protect their championship. Italy is actually the fifth choice in general to secure the World Cup behind Spain, Brazil, England and Argentina. Even several of Italy’s supporters are not giving the squad a great possibility to repeat. Head coach Marcello Lippi was ripped in the media for the players he picked out for the World Cup lineup. Fabrizio Miccoli, Antonio Cassano, Francesco Totti and Mario Balotelli won’t be making the trip to South Africa.

Nevertheless, Italy is a major favorite to get Group F. Italy is -310 in World Cup prospects to get Group F with Paraguay a distant 2nd choice at 3-1. New Zealand is a big longshot as Slovakia is just over 6-1. In this group, Italy is the squad that the fans will be observing. They may be observing a lot of low scoring matches considering that Italy will not have much goal scoring capacity. They do have Captain Fabio Cannavaro who was good 4 years ago. He won the Golden Ball and he was FIFA world player of the year. This will be his 4th in addition to his last World Cup. He is taking a break from International competition following the World Cup and he won’t probably come back to Juventus.

Cannavaro not only has to take care of the Italian team, he additionally has to take care of his own circumstances. The lineup looks poor and head coach Marcello Lippi is expected to leave after the World Cup. Cesare Prandelli is expected to be named Lippi’s successor.

Several professionals are proclaiming that Italy is simply too aged to preserve their championship in World Cup gambling. The goal scoring is a big question mark, even though they continue to have goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, defender Gianluca Zambrotta and midfielders Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo. Cannavaro is hoping to hold the team together as the squad captain but there appears to be lots of questions around this Italy squad. Group F is not that difficult, which is what’s promising for the Italians in World Cup gambling. New Zealand likely will not get a point while Paraguay and Slovakia ought to fight for 2nd place.

With a massive audience of more than 700 million viewers, the World Cup is the most popular sporting competition in the world. With a couple of exceptions, it is hosted every 4 years since the 1st tournament in 1930. Only seven nations have won the championship out of the 18 tourneys that have been hosted until now. With a record five titles, Brazil leads the bunch. They are furthermore the sole team to play in every tournament. Italy, who won the championship last year, is next with four titles. Germany has picked up three. With one title each, Uruguay, Argentina, England and France complete the list. This year’s World Cup will begin on June 11 and finish July 11. Brazil will be the host of the next World Cup in 2014.


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