Prediction for Russia vs New Zealand

Finally summer football and I'm obviously talking about FIFA Confederations Cup. We have the opening game between Russia and New Zealand. Russia were one of the biggest flop in the last years for every international competition. They had good players able to play a good world cup (for example) but their performance was very disappointing. They have big expectations for this competition and they will have the home advantage. Even though they don`t have many stars, they should be able to play a solid competition and I'm expecting them to start well today. They will play against the worst team in the competition by far. New Zealand is a very poor team...they will try to play defensive minded trying to stop Russia's offense but I don't think that they will be able to do that. Their offense is very poor...In the last 2 games against Belarus and Nothern Ireland they have shooted only 1 time on target (in 2 matches!!). Russia have not the best defense (that's true) but they are from another planet for every single New Zealand's player. I think that Russia is clearly the better side...they need these 3 points if they want to hope to qualify for the next round and they should not fail this one at home. All I see here is the home side winning without conceding a single goal.

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* -  Odds correct at time of publication, and are subject to change.