betprepare.com

France beat Serbia yesterday by 16 points and have a great chance of securing the top spot in Group E, which means they would face the weakest team from the other quarterfinal group and would avoid Spain until the potential final. At the moment, France, Russia and Serbia have a 3-1 score, but it's clear that France will take the first spot if they beat Lithuania as they have beaten Russia and Serbia. France have the best defense on this tournament while the Lithuanians have the worst. They lost against Russia by 43 points and France and Russia are on a par. Lithuania are the last-placed team in the group with a 0-4 score and it's clear they will go into the relegation battle. Today's game is not really important to them and the one on Friday against the best team from Group G, which includes the teams eliminated in the first round. They might even make a few compromises today and rest their crucial players, which is a well-known practice on these tournaments. The game against Russia showed how much they struggle against tough defenses, and there's no defense here better than the French defense. Details

Ventspils put up a great tactical and defensive performance and kept the result at 0-0 with much less problems than was expected. The Swedish team's lackluster performance played its part in that as they are missing their main playmaker Molins. The scenario from the first game should be repeated today as the hosts have no offensive potential to attack and will probably stick to their original recipe and keep things tight at the back, hoping they get something from a counter or after a mistake. The best option for today would be an under as we can't expect this to be a thriller with lots of attacks on both ends, especially if the result stays at 0-0 for a while. An early goal could ruin this but I don't think it would still result in a run'n'gun game as Venstpils would probably park the second bus if they score while they don't have the capacity for an offensive pressure in case that Malmo score. I will go for under three goals, and I also recommend a bit more risky but still a very plausible option of no goals in the first half as this should be just a continuation of the trench war from the first game. Details

The prediction that neither team will score in the last game turned out to be right, and today, we have a new, even more precise one - that the visiting team won't score. Helsinki's defense still seems very secure about what they're doing, and following the first-leg game with Rabotnicki, they didn't concede against Seinajoki either. Ever since coach Lehkosuo took over, their defense became impenetrable. In 15 out of the 17 games, the Finnish champions managed to not concede a single goal. They know that any goal they might concede here would see them being knocked out, and because of that they will try even harder. Rabotnici aren't very good, and not better than the other Finnish team. I think the home team will manage to keep their net intact once again. Details

The Russian coach can claim his team are getting better by the game, but I'm not convinced. You can't win in water polo if you are not capable of defending yourself. And they're not. It's a team that conceded more than 10 goals in the 14 out of the last 16 games. Once 10 and once 9 against the 'mighty' Netherlands. They lost all the games in handicap here, except the one against Georgia, and that one might have been the same if the opponents were not constantly short-handed in the last minutes, since they had no more players left after the 21 ejection. Germany aren't doing their best either, but the only really bad performance was the defeat to France. They should have won that game, if only they had a bit of luck and if the referees weren't helping France. Germany are capable of playing good defense, and they will score. I don't think Russia will play a defense-oriented game today. To opt for an over at 10,5 goals for Germany wouldn't be bad either. Details