Have Brazil qualified for next year’s World Cup yet?

Brazil coach Tite publicly thanked Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa after Raphinha’s stunning full international debut against Uruguay. The Samba boys are all but qualified for next year’s World Cup after a fantastic 4-1 win over Uruguay, with the Leeds winger scoring twice on his first start, with Neymar and Gabriel also on target. Luiz Suarez got the Uruguayan consolation. Brazil are six points clear at the top of the South American qualifying group with four spots up for grabs.

Raphinha Super Mega Minutes (settled at 134)

This international break has seen Raphinha break through as an international star for Brazil. He came off the bench to inspire Brazil’s comeback against Venezuela last week, and against Uruguay he grabbed two goals in a 4-1 win. Premier League fans will know he’s been in decent scoring form for Leeds, despite their indifferent start, and buyers of his goal minutes (9-12) or Super Mega Minutes (14-18) both made decent profits. Goal minutes settled at 76, a profit of 64 times their stake for buyers, while buyers of Super Mega Minutes made 116 times their bet.

What else happened in the South American qualifiers?

Argentina strengthened their grip on second place with a 1-0 win over Peru, increasing their lead over 3^rd place Ecuador to 8 points. After that though, it looks like being a mighty scrap to lock up the World Cup spots for 3^rd and 4^th, plus the play-off position of 5^th. There are seven teams within 5 points, and with the fixture swing meaning those playing catch up have more home games, it looks wide open. Ecuador and Colombia currently hold those all-important 3^rd and 4^th spots after their 0-0 draw last night.

Colombia v Ecuador: Total Goal Minutes (settled at 0)

During this compacted international break, all South American teams have squeezed three qualifiers into a week. Amazingly, Colombia have a record of played 3, drawn 3, scored 0, conceded 0, with three straight goalless draws. They started with a 0-0 in Uruguay before heading home for goalless draws with Brazil and Ecuador. Shrewd bettors had taken note of those first two games and hit the sell button last night. Total Goal Minutes was set at 120-130, so sellers pocketed the maximum 120 times their bet.

What happened in the champion jockey battle at Chelmsford last night?

Champion jockey Oisin Murphy, two winners ahead with three days left, almost got off to the perfect start at Chelmsford, finishing 2^nd on 4/1 shot Single Minded in the 5.30, with challenger William Buick back down the field. However, he could only watch from the sidelines as Buick closed the gap to one winner in the next, taking it on 9/1 Typical Woman in a race expected to be won by James Doyle on Tollard Royal, a 30/100 shot that only managed 5^th. Murphy struck back in the next with 7/4JF Notions finishing 1^st, Buick, on the other 7/4JF Ramadhaan only managing 4^th. Neither finished in the frame in the 7.00, and after that they took it in turns to go close but neither had another winner. Buick had the disappointment of seeing 2/9 favourite Lord Lovelace done in the 7.30. Murphy had his own disappointment in the penultimate race as it was his turn to take 2^nd, 10/3 Dubai Icon losing out to 25/1 shot You’re Hired. The meeting came to a close with yet another 2^nd, this time for Buick on 4/1 shot Aiguillette.

Tom Marquand SM Jockey Performance (settled at 75)

While all eyes were on Murphy v Buick, Tom Marquand had the best evening at Chelmsford, riding two winners. Marquand, who had a Super Mega Performance spread of 30.5-32.5, won the opener on 16/5F Haunted Dream and the 7.30 on 9/1 shot Under The Twilight. The SM Jockey Performance doubles the points for a 2^nd winner and trebles them for any 3^rd victory, so Marquand finished on 75, a profit of 42.5 times their bet for buyers.

Is Cameron Norrie still going strong at Indian Wells?

Norrie enjoyed what he called ‘the biggest win oy my career’ last night, beating Diego Schwartzman in straight sets to reach the semi-finals of the Indian Wells Masters. Norrie will replace Dan Evans as British number one with this thrashing of world number 15 Schwartzman, who beat Evans in round 3. Norrie had never been to the last 8 of a Masters 1000 event before, but he played brilliantly to win 6-0 6-2.

X-Courts (settled at 12)

This was expected to be a close match, with Schwartzman the slight favourite, but those predicting it to be as one-sided as it turned out made a nice profit on the X-Courts spreads. This market, which multiplies the players’ games in each set together than totals them up, will obviously settle higher the closer the match is, as the players reach higher game totals, and also if the match goes to the maximum number of sets. This match was almost perfect for sellers, with Schwartzman only winning two games and the match lasting two sets. The 6-0 first set added zero to the total, so this market settled at 12 (6x2 in the second set), banking sellers 41 times their bet, given the pre-match spread was 53-58.

Are we still on track for Judd Trump v Ronnie O’Sullivan in the Northern Ireland Open for the 4^th straight year?

Trump is still on track to win this event for the 4^th straight year, but Ronnie won’t be making the final this year after being dumped out by Yan Bingtao. In a top-quality match, only spoilt by O’Sullivan having to ask some fans to sit down and tell officials to stop letting fans in during play, the Rocket was twice ahead. Ronnie went 1-0 up, but the 21-year-old responded with an 89 break to level. O’Sullivan was at his best in the third frame, a 129 break putting him 2-1 up, but Yan won the next two to go within a frame of victory. At 71-0 up in the 6^th frame he missed a long red that would have seen him through, and the six-time world champ made a fabulous 73 clearance to force a decider. Both players had chances, but it was the younger man who held his nerve to get over the line.

Total Points (settled at 779)

Ronnie was odds on favourite for this match, but Yan is the current Masters champion and those buying markets on his performance did very well. A market that tends to go over when a game is closer than predicted is total points, and those buying yesterday made a tidy profit. And remember, Total Points doesn’t even need the underdog to win, just to play well, which Yan certainly did. The Total Points spread was set at 595-620, so buyers made 159 times their stake as this match went all the way.