After what has seemed about four months, the World Cup is finally back tonight as Germany take on hosts Brazil in the first of the semi-finals.
Our record in the betting stakes after the quarter-finals is a little like Brazil; we're wounded yet still standing, we haven't been amazing all the time but we have had one David Luiz like moment of brilliance.
While both our long shot bets lost on Friday and Saturday, we did land a 'Billy Beane' banker thanks to our 11/4 shout that there would be a penalty in the Brazil v Colombia match.
So moving onto tonight, thanks to those at Betpack, we have €187.50 left in our Billy Beane kitty and €30 left in our – perhaps not as sarcastically named as one might think – Sure Thing kitty. Here's where out money is going:
Billy Beane Bet Of The Day
Right we're being extra extra sensible tonight. No frills, no froggy feelings; we're going purely on common sense here and backing Germany to win.
Brazil have been unimpressive in their performances to date and given that they're going to be without their talisman Neymar and captain Thiago Silva, we can only see this going one way.
Bet: €50 Germany to win at 9/5
'Sure Thing' Bet Of The Day
Even when we're being a bit more adventurous we still can't look past Germany so our thoughts are that if they don't do it in normal time then they will definitely get the job done in extra time. If they win on penalties I think we might go into the corner and cry.
Bet: €10 Germany to win in extra time at 10/1
Wait though ... If we go with these bets then we're guaranteed to lose at least one, so I tell you what; let's transfer across the €7.50 from our Billy Beane account and go with a bonus 'Sure Thing' bet to make things a bit more interesting. I'm feeling froggy!
Bonus bet: €7.50 on Schurrle to score last and Germany to win 2-1 at 60/1
