Womens WC - Germany v China

Germany are one of the favourites for the whole thing here, but there are reasons to believe they could be a touch on the short side at at just 1.29 to beat the Chinese in their opening match.

With a great crop of youngsters coming through the ranks of the German national side, joining an already highly competent existing squad, it's very tempting to pile behind the Germans - especially when you consider their recent unbeaten run coming into the tournament, including wins over France and Canada.

Generally speaking though, it's been built on very solid foundations, without running riot in lots of matches. They beat Chile 2-0, drew 2-2 with Japan and won 2-1 at Sweden and 1-0 at France. In a ten match unbeaten run back to June last yea, they have only won by more than two goals against Faroe Isles and Italy (5-2)

China are no mugs though. Ranked 16th in the World, they recently went down 2-1 to France in warm-up for this, which was a terrific effort. It's hard to read too much into their other results this year, with a mix of matches against European, Asian and African opponents. Of the matches they have played against the big guns, they lost 0-1 and 1-2 to the United States in a double header, and drew 1-1 with Netherlands.

All in all, the (+2) on China looks too big here at 19/20 with SpreadEx. It could very well be closer than that and we'd pick up with any result which sees China win, draw, or lose by no more than one goal.

If you like your goalscorer betting, Lea Schuller has established herself as the preferred partner to Alexandra Popp, and looks decent value to open the scoring in the game at 9/2. She's scored eight goals in 13 appearances so far.

1pt China (+1) to beat Germany at 19/20 (SpreadEx)

0.5pts Lea Schuller to score 1st at 9/2 (UniBet)

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