Weekend Predictions: Victory for El Diego, Frustration for France, Survival for Sven

Very little club football this weekend, it’s all about World Cup qualifying.

Below are my picks for three games, one from COMNEBOL, one from UEFA and one from CONCACAF. And I dare you – make that double dare you – to leave your own predictions in the comments.

Argentina vs Venezuela (March 28th, Buenos Aires, 19:10)

Diego Maradona started with friendly wins over Scotland and France. Which are all well and good… but now it’s time for the real deal. This is El Diego’s first “proper” game in charge – a World Cup qualifier – and also his first game on Argentinean soil.

The albiceleste sit third in the CONMEBOL Word Cup qualifying table. Top four make it, fifth goes to a playoff. So Diego’s team are in a decent position, but after his very public row with Juan Roman Riquelme he needs a performance to convince everyone it’s all good. If this doesn’t go well, questions will be asked.

As for Venezuela? Fifth place isn’t impossible (only three points out) but it doesn’t look all that likely either.

Prediction: A convincing Riquelme-less 3-0 win for Argentina.

Odds: Argentina 1-6, Draw 11-2, Venezuela 12-1
3-0 to Argentina: 11-2
Leo Messi first goalscorer 7-2
Sergio Aguero first goalscorer 4-1
More odds at PaddyPower

Bonus Prediction: Maraguero will need burping at halftime.

Lithuania vs France (March 28th, Kaunas, 21:45)

How Raymond Domenech still has the French job is anyone’s guess. But if France’s cringeworthy Euro 2008 performance didn’t get him fired, then this WC2010 qualification campaign definitely will. It started with a defeat to Austria, picked up a bit with a win over Serbia and then sank down again with a draw against Romania. A win over surprise second placed team Lithuania would work wonders for Domenech’s job security, a draw would leave him wobbly. A defeat would see Arsene Wenger’s phone ringing.

Prediction: A 1-1 draw, that Lithuania will be very happy with. France not so much.

Odds: Lithuania 5-1, Draw 13-5, France 8-13
1-1 draw: 11-2
Karim Benzema to score first goal: 5-1
More odds at PaddyPower

Bonus Prediction: Patrice Evra will not be signing autographs.

Mexico vs Costa Rica (March 28th, Mexico City, 17:00)

Sven Goran Eriksson is very much the Mexican Domenech. Or the Swedish Domenech. Either way, he’s not popular with El Tri fans right now. Mexico are bottom of the CONCACAF hexagonal after just one game – that 2-0 defeat to USA, while Costa Rica are top.

The intriguing thing about this game isn’t just the gigantic sword dangling over Sven’s shiny sloping forehead, it’s the fact that Costa Rica are the only team ever to win a WC qualifying game at the legendary Azteca – the famous Aztecazo of 2001.

Will history repeat itself?

Prediction: Probably not. Sven might not be the most gifted of international managers, but he was always lucky. I see a poor performance but a 1-0 win.

Odds: Mexico 4-7, Draw 5-2, Costa Rica 9-2
More odds at PaddyPower

Bonus Prediction: Someone will arrange a special playoff match between Mexico and France, on neutral territory. Winning manager gets to keep his job.

Pay Offshore Oscar a visit on Bet Offside, to see who he’s backing in Wales vs Finland, Ireland vs Bulgaria and Paraguay vs Uruguay.

Time for a look at last week’s predictions. Here’s what I went with:

Liverpool 1-0 Aston Villa
Roma 1-2 Juventus
Houston 2-0 Columbus

Here’s what actually happened:

Liverpool 5-0 Aston Villa
Roma 1-4 Juventus
Houston 1-1 Columbus

So I score four points in total. One each for having the correct winner of the ‘Pool and Juve games, another for predicting Villa going goalless, and one more for predicting Roma’s single goal.

(Is everyone happy with the scoring system by the way? Haven’t heard any feedback since we changed it. Basically the old one was one point for correct result (W,D,L) and two extra points for correct score. New one is one point for correct result, one bonus point for home team correct score, one bonus point for away team correct score).

Incredibly, four points is enough to give me the win. My first ever. But congratulations also to Helge and Jem who both got three points, as well as Javier, Drabik and Revalesq who all got two points.

So, what do you think for this weekend’s games?

Argentina – Venezuela
Lithuania – France
Mexico – Costa Rica

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