Brazil and Spain head Confederations betting
European champions Spain are vying for favouritism with World Cup 2014 hosts Brazil in the Confederations Cup, which kicks off on Saturday.
The tournament is used as a World Cup warm-up event and 6-4 Brazil are slightly favoured to win the tournament on home turf, with Spain 7-4 and Italy next best at 7-1.
Uruguay (10-1) and Mexico (14-1) will have their backers, with 33-1 Nigeria, 40-1 Japan and 5,000-1 rags Tahiti making up the field.
It's a sizzling heat for top-scorer honours with Uruguay’s Luis Suarez and Spain’s David Villa both available at 9-1, slightly ahead of Brazil’s Neymar, who recently made a big-money move to Barcelona, at 10-1.
Manchester City have been reportedly chasing the services of Uruguay’s Edinson Cavani, who is 14-1, while Brazil’s Hulk (16-1), Mexico’s Javier Hernandez (25-1) and Spain’s Juan Mata (66-1) are other familiar names who could go well.
Brazil are 1-3 to beat Japan in the opening match and it’s 11-4 that the tournament hosts meet Spain in the final, which takes place in the Maracana stadium in Rio on June 30. All the games will be shown live on the BBC in the UK.
