Uruguay earned a thrilling victory over Egypt in its opening match at the 2018 World Cup. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia was embarrassed by Russia. These two teams meet Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. ET at Rostov-on-Don. The Saudi Arabia team plane caught fire en route to this match, giving everyone aboard a scare. Uruguay enters the Group A fixture as a -800 money line favorite, meaning you'd need to wager $800 on an Uruguay victory to win $100. Saudi Arabia is a +1800 underdog (risk $100 to win $1800), while a draw is +750. The Over-Under on total goals in this 2018 World Cup match is 3.
Before you enter your 2018 World Cup picks, you have to see what European soccer expert David Sumpter has to say. Sumpter is an applied mathematician who wrote Soccermatics, the 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.
The Soccerbot already called Brazil-Switzerland playing to a draw (+360), Argentina-Iceland ending in a draw (+385), and Iran upsetting Morocco (+275), just to name a few.
Now, the Soccerbot has digested the film, crunched the numbers, and broken down every player on Uruguay and Saudi Arabia. The model has released a strong money-line pick, which it's sharing over at SportsLine.
The model knows a powerful Uruguay offense couldn't crack a Mohamed Salah-less Egypt until the 89th minute in its opening match. With a victory against Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Uruguay could all but secure its place in the 2018 World Cup Knockout Stage.
Uruguay's explosive attack was unable to break down a solid Egyptian back line, but expect a better showing against Saudi Arabia, which let in five goals in its opening match against Russia. Uruguay features an explosive attacking duo in Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani. Suarez, Uruguay's all-time leading scorer, is coming off a remarkable season with La Liga champions Barcelona that saw him score 32 goals.
The Soccerbot is also aware that Saudi Arabia needs to show a rapid transformation in order to avoid continuing its World Cup futility. The club looked lifeless in a 5-0 opening loss to Russia and has finished last in its group in three straight World Cup appearances.
Saudi Arabia has gone winless in 11 straight World Cup matches, salvaging a draw in two of them. It has failed to score in eight of its last 10 and did not have a single shot on target against Russia.
Even so, Saudi Arabia has a win and a draw in two prior meetings against Uruguay, both home friendlies.
So which nation takes the second-round match? Or will it end in a draw? Visit SportsLine now to see the strong Uruguay-Saudi Arabia money-line pick, all from a European soccer expert whose powerful model is up 1,800 percent in less than three years.