Stadium: Ariake Arena (Tokyo).
Ekaterina Gamova’s 35 points and defeated Brazil in the World Cup final are a long-standing story. There is no one to beat the Brazilians these days. The Russians are likely to lose without a chance.
Brazil
The Brazilians sometimes play poorly in attack, for example, in the match against the Dominican Republic. Then, for instance, Gabi scored 17 from 43 and Tandara 10 from 35. You don’t score, and you get five sets. But in those five sets, the Dominican women got only one ace.
They got five aces in five games, or to be more exact, in 18 sets. That is precisely how much the opponents of the Brazilian national team managed to earn in the group stage. The Serbian team was the best in this match with two aces in four sets. The Korean players had the worst results - zero in three sets. In the game against Brazil, the odds are that Fedorovtseva will not be able to play as long as she likes.
Russia
Irina Koroleva scored 10 points in a five-set match against Turkey, three of them by serve. Even if we assume her efficiency on the block and attack remains unchanged, and she will play five sets again, 10 points is a bit of a stretch.
Besides, in Brazil-Serbia’s game, for example, all central blockers on Terzic’s team scored 10 points in total. The Brazilians pushed their opponent away from the net, and when they had an opportunity to serve first, they were very attentive and, as usual, very fast. As a result, the attack of Rašić, Popović, and Aleksić gave Serbia only five points with an attacking efficiency of 30% through the centre. That’s bad for any attacking player and monstrous for centre-backs.
I’m no less sceptical about the performance of Arina Fedorovtseva. Six aces in the game with Turkey is difficult to repeat, and even more so against Brazil. Arina hit the Turks 12 out of 34, i.e., her performance was much worse than before. I don’t expect to win five sets this time. That’s why I don’t think that the level of 16 points is too difficult to overcome.
Expert Betting Tips
As I said before, I will be shocked if five sets are played in the match, so I choose the following bet:
- Total Under 177.5 for 2.01;
- Koroleva will score Under 7.5 for 1.85;
- Individual Total 1 Under 4.5 aces for 1.83.
Other predictions
