France and Peru square off in an important Group C matchup on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. ET in the 2018 World Cup. France earned a late victory over Australia in its opening World Cup match, while Peru lost a heart-breaker to Denmark by a final score of 1-0. Of the five biggest World Cup favorites, France was the only country to win its opening match. France is posted at -180 World Cup odds, meaning you'd need to bet $180 to win $100 on an outright victory. Peru is at +550 (risk $100 to win $500), while a draw is +305. The Over-Under on total goals scored is 2.5.
Before you make your 2018 World Cup picks, you need to see what European football expert David Sumpter has to say. Sumpter is an applied mathematician who wrote "Soccermatics: Mathematical Adventures in the Beautiful Game," a book that explains how math works inside the sport. Together, with other experienced analysts, Sumpter developed the powerful Soccerbot model.
The Soccerbot reads current odds and all team performance data, calculates key metrics and predicts upcoming matches. In nearly three seasons since its inception, the Soccerbot is up an incredible 1,800 percent on bookmakers' closing odds.
Sumpter returned $100 bettors a profit of $745 on his opening-round selections for Russia 2018, a run that included a whopping +385 payback for accurately pegging a draw between Iceland and Argentina.
Sumpter knows France was lucky to escape its first match with the full three points. Les Blues scored a late go-ahead goal, the World Cup's first goal enabled by a video assistant referee.
France showed spurts of how dangerous it can be in the final third of the field. France's potent attack is built around Antoine Griezmann, who has been directly involved in nine of France's last 13 goals scored in major tournaments, with seven goals and two assists.
And France has history on its side entering Thursday's 2018 World Cup match against Peru. France has kept a clean sheet in its last six World Cup matches against South American sides. In fact, the last South American team to beat France at the World Cup was Argentina in 1978.
The Soccerbot also is aware that Peru was lauded for its intensity despite a lack of efficiency and somewhat conservative approach against Denmark. Many World Cup observers note that Peru must take more risks in order to stand a chance of beating France, though doing so could open some opportunities for the favorite in transition.
Peru beat France 1-0 in a 1982 friendly in the only other prior meeting between these clubs.
So which hungry nation wins Thursday? Or does it end in a draw? Visit SportsLine now to see the strong France-Peru money-line pick, all from a European football expert whose powerful model is up 1,800 percent in less than three years.
