Switzerland vs. Philippines prediction: World Cup odds, pick

One of the themes of the 2023 Women’s World Cup is that the expanded field of 32 teams (the 2019 iteration featured 24) will take away from the competition, especially early on.

Teams such as Panama, the Philippines, Haiti, Vietnam and Zambia are almost certainly going to struggle and there could be plenty of severe blowouts in the first two weeks of the tournament.

Bookmakers are certainly expecting as much at 1 a.m. (EDT) Friday, when Switzerland takes on the Philippines in the latter team’s World Cup debut.

Switzerland vs. Philippines pick

At BetMGM, the Swiss are -725 favorites on the three-way moneyline with the Philippines sitting at +1650 and the draw hanging at +700.

While those odds may suggest it won’t be a compelling match to handicap — everything is pointing to a rout by the Swiss — there is some game theory that bettors should consider.

Group A features three teams (Norway, New Zealand and Switzerland) with realistic hopes of qualifying for the Round of 16 and there’s a decent chance that goal differential could play a large part in determining who gets through.

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Each team will fancy its chances to run up the score against the Philippines and, at least in New Zealand’s and Switzerland’s cases, hope for three or four points out of their other two matches.

That should lead to those teams throwing everything they can at the Philippines and that should lead to some lopsided scores and plenty of goals.

The Swiss should be able to name their score.

The bet: Switzerland over 3.5 goals (+190, BetMGM)