Uzbekistan Ol. vs Spain Ol. prediction: WORLD: Olympic Games betting tips on match 2024-07-23 13:00.
[p]Uzbekistan secured their first-ever team place at an Olympic Games with a 2-0 win over Indonesia back in April. The White Wolves will now get their historic maiden campaign underway on Wednesday against tournament second favourites Spain, and with only Iraq, Dominican Republic and New Zealand coming into the competition with longer odds, there is not a great deal of expectation on the side.[/p]
[p]Despite what those long odds suggest, coach Timur Kapadze brings a squad to France who have had time and money invested in them, in part with the creation of FC Olympic who joined the domestic league in 2022 and featured only players eligible for this tournament. But with only four players from that team making the 22-man squad for the games, any potential advantage in terms of familiarity or team spirit looks set to be futile.[/p]
[p]Spain will be looking to tap into the feel-good factor surrounding their national team after their senior side became the first team to lift the UEFA European Championship for a fourth time when they beat England in the final earlier this month. Manager Santi Denia has even selected two members of that squad, Alex Baena and Fermin Lopez, both of whom appeared from the bench in the group stages in Germany, and will be looking to add an Olympic gold.[/p]
[p]La Roja have a strong record in this competition and will be hopeful of going one better than they did in Tokyo four years ago when they lost to Brazil after extra time in the final. That was the third time they had to settle for silver, after 1920 and 2000, whereas this time they will be hoping to match the class of 1992 who lifted the trophy at Camp Nou.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Uzbekistan striker Khusain Norchaev has been in fine form with four goals from six matches for club and country since the start of June and he opened the scoring in the 2-0 victory over Indonesia to qualify for these games. Spain captain Abel Ruiz scored three and got two assists at the Under-21 Euros last summer and has also been capped twice at senior level.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Spain have lost only one of their opening matches (W3, D1) across their last five Olympic games.[/p]