World Cup 2010 winner betting odds

Brazil`s powerful showing during their win over Chile in the last sixteen has seen the bookmakers install them as 5/2 (bet £20 to win £50 profit) favourites to lift the World Cup this summer ahead of their mouth-watering clash with Holland at the end of the week.

Dunga`s new-look side blends defensive toughness and discipline with an incisive attack and while they impressed in their 3-1 win over the Ivory Coast, the ease with with they sent Chile out of the competition is sure to have struck fear in the hearts of their rials in South Africa.

They are followed in the betting by South American rivals Argentina. Coached by legend Diego Maradona, they have started brightly and have a depth of attacking talent that cannot be rivalled, with Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Carlos Tevez, Diego Milito and Sergio Aguero all available.

At 4/1 with Extrabet, many punters will find it hard to look past one of only two sides to have won every game they have played at the competition, most recently beating Mexico 3-1. They were gifted a controversial opener, but that should not overshadow the fact that they dominated the game and completely deserved their comfortable winning margin.

While Argentina have hit the ground running, Spain have struggled. The European champions lost their opening game 1-0 to Switzerland and were unconvincing in wins over Honduras and Chile, with a tough tie against neighbouring Portugal in store for them tonight.

There is no doubting the talents of the likes of David Villa, Fernando Torres, Xavi and Iniesta, but they will need to play as we know they can if they are to justify their tag of pre-tournament favourites and they have been pushed out in the betting from as short as 3/1 to the 5/1 now available on Betfair.

Outside of the front three in the betting, the biggest threats come from Holland and Germany. Holland have won all of their games so far and are through to the quarter-finals after beating Slovakia 2-1 in the last sixteen. They are 7/1 with most bookmakers but they have failed to really impress as yet and will definitely struggle to get past Brazil in the next round if they cannot improve.

Germany, however, could be the dark horse this summer. Many wrote the Germans off after captain Michael Ballack was ruled out due to injury, but they started the tournament with a 4-0 crushing of Australia and humiliated England 4-1 in their last match. They face Argentina in the next round but they gel very well as a team and may prove good value, also at 7/1.

Others still involved include Uruguay and Portugal, at 16/1 and 25/1 respectively, as well as Ghana (40/1 with Victor Chandler), Paraguay (50/1) and Japan (100/1).