Thailand Women vs Chile Women Predictions

Thailand’s first ever World Cup has been a bit of a miserable affair, though they did give their fans something to cheer about when finding the net against Sweden last time out. After two tough games, the Thai women will be pleased to step into calmer waters by facing a Chile side ranked five places below themselves.

It would be wrong to judge Thailand purely on their opening two efforts at this World Cup. Granted, they struggled massively against both USA and Sweden, though they’re now up against a far lesser side, so it would be anything but surprising to see Nuengrutai Srathongvian’s men do better.

On the face of it, as they’ve only conceded five goals, which is a lot less than the 16 conceded by Thailand, Chile have been much better than Thursday’s opponents, though if we examine their efforts, the South Americans have been just as poor. They failed to land a blow against Sweden, and although they only lost 3-0 against USA, they were never in the game, while they benefited from the fact that their opponents rested several key players.

Prior to the World Cup, Thailand fared reasonably well against opposition of Chile’s level. They only lost by a single goal against Mexico, who rank 13 places above the Chileans, while they beat 45^th place Hungary in convincing style (4-0) prior to that. In the last year or so, the Thai women have also lost by just two goals against Japan, while they also managed to beat Australia.

In the betting, as they managed to avoid heavy defeats against both Sweden and USA, Chile are obviously favoured in the betting ahead of this match, though they look somewhat short. At the prices, there are two bets that stand out. ‘Thailand +2 Handicap’ stands out, as does ‘Under 3.5 Goals’.

Despite what the score-line would have us believe, Chile were dreadful against Sweden, posting just four shots at goal, none of which hit the target. Thailand may have conceded more goals against the Swedes, but they also offered more of a threat going forward, as they unleashed seven shots, three of which hit the target, one of which found the net.

Frankly, Chile’s attacking threat is nowhere near good enough for them to be such heavy odds-on favourites. They’ve looked lacking in ideas, while final-third quality is likely to once again be a problem, even against weak opponents. On this basis, it’s worth going against the notion that they’ll join USA and Sweden in battering Thailand, while the fact that the pair average a measly 0.31 expected goals for suggests that there’s more chance of a low-scoring affair than the betting suggests.