Whoever wins the Germany v Argentina quarter final this afternoon has a really good chance of winning the lot.
In the 16 World Cup finals (West) Germany have played in, they've been knocked out by the eventual winners five times, beaten finalists four times and beaten semi finalists three times. They've also won it three times. England been knocked out by either the eventual winners or beaten semi finalists in almost 75% of their World Cup campaigns, another stat that favours Germany If Argentina win, they have a fair chance of winning the lot - although if Germany win I think they'd be a better bet as Argentina have only really been a major international football power since their 1978 win. Also worth considering: knocking out Brazil doesn't automatically mean that Holland will win the World Cup. Seven of the eleven teams that have knocked Brazil out of previous tournaments have either been beaten in the semis or lost the final, but interestingly two of the remaining four went on to win the World Cup for the first time (Argentina in 1978 and France in 1998 - and they were both hosts!). I can see Holland getting to the final, but if they win or not depends on who they play. Repeat finals are pretty rare (there's only been one - Brazil v Italy in 1970 and 1994), but the Dutch lost to Argentina in 1978 and West Germany in 1974. I know I haven't mentioned Spain but there's a reason for that ;-) I think I might have been the only person supporting Uruguay yesterday, I had two lays on Betfair - elimination at every stage OTHER than the quarter finals and Group A not to win the World Cup. So that was pretty intense as you can imagine. Don't think Uruguay are going to win the whole thing though...but you never know. Financially the best final for me would be either Germany or Argentina beating Uruguay, but as the Stones sang all those years ago, 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'.
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