Dobbo's World Cup betting diary: on to the final!

Maradona wanted Higuain's wallet so he could put even more money on Frank's bets ...

As a lifelong Newcastle United fan, I'm perhaps more hardened than most to the despair felt by England fans on Sunday.

Ridiculously high expectations, a good team on paper, a wait of over 40 years since the last major trophy, some truly dreadful defending and inevitable disappointment … the similarities go on.

With Capello’s flops out of the running we can now sit back, relax and enjoy some proper football played by some truly great teams. Games at the business end of the World Cup tend to be close run affairs but there are some value bets to be found.

The Latin Quarters

Looking at the quarter finals, it is hard to look past the South American teams. The bookies are running with this and giving some very generous odds on a couple of European power houses.

Holland are 10-3 to beat Brazil, and with Robben fit again and Van Persie yet to really start firing, they appear to have as good a chance as anyone of doing so.

Germany meanwhile are 5-2 to end Argentina’s hopes.

I picked Argentina to win the tournament at the start and am sticking with that prediction. However 5-2 for a German win in any match is very tempting indeed. The safer bet in these games could again be the draw after 90 minutes – available on both games at 11-5.

In the third known quarter final Uruguay look good to continue their run against Ghana at evens, and could be a good long shot to win the whole thing for the first time since 1950 at 14-1.