Football Bet of the Day: Real Madrid to face Pachuca resistance in 2024 Fifa Intercontinental Cup final

Wednesday's Football Bet of the Day comes from Lusail, Qatar as Real Madrid and Pachuca face off in the final of the 2024 Fifa Intercontinental Cup, the inaugural edition of the Fifa Intercontinental Cup - an annual club tournament organised by football's governing body.

The showpiece event takes place at the Lusail Iconic Stadium on Wednesday evening (17:00 GMT, 20:00 local time) and ahead of the contest, I have picked out a market worthy of consideration, which you can check out below.

Real Madrid vs Pachuca Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Real Madrid vs Pachuca page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this match.

Pachuca qualified for the tournament after beating Club America 2-1 in the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup final on June 1, the same night Real Madrid secured entry following their 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund in the 2023/24 Uefa Champions League final.

However, the Mexican side have had to go through two further games to reach Wednesday's Fifa Intercontinental Cup final. Brazilian outfit Botafogo, winners of this year's Copa Libertadores, provided the opposition in last week's 'Derby of the Americas' at Stadium 974 in Doha, where Pachuca powered to a 3-0 win.

Three days later, Pachuca played Egyptian powerhouses Al Ahly in the 'Challenger Cup', with the victors earning a ticket to the 2024 Fifa Intercontinental Cup final, where Real Madrid would lie in wait. Nothing could separate the sides in regulation or extra-time and despite former Premier League strikers Salomon Rondon and Borja Baston missing Pachuca's first two spot-kicks, Guillermo Almada's charges ultimately triumphed 6-5 on penalties in Qatar's capital of Doha.

Pachuca only have a few days to recover ahead of Wednesday's meeting, but the same can be said for Real Madrid who were also in action on Saturday, drawing 3-3 away at Rayo Vallecano, although the reigning La Liga champions have had to travel from Spain to Qatar as well.

Saturday's stalemate wasn't the ideal way to warm up for Wednesday's final and Los Blancos are yet to truly hit first gear this season with home defeats to Barcelona (0-4) and AC Milan (1-3), as well as a 2-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield, proving particularly embarrassing.

Carlo Ancelotti hasn't been helped by a lengthy injury list this season and Dani Carvajal, Eder Militaro, David Alaba and Ferland Mendy are all ruled out of the midweek final although Kylian Mbappe, who was forced off in the first half of Real Madrid's 3-2 win over Atalanta in Bergamo last Wednesday and missed the weekend draw at the Campo de Futbol de Vallecas, has trained this week and could play a part in proceedings against Pachuca.

Meanwhile, Vinicius Jr. has recently returned from his own injury issue and is likely to start in Lusail.

Football Odds

Real Madrid are rightly big favourites to lift the cup in Qatar but Pachuca are no pushovers and having finished their league season on November 10, should be putting all their energy into this final, whereas the Spanish side have to return home shortly after to prepare for Sunday's game against Sevilla at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

Pachuca endured a dismal Apertura campaign as they finished third bottom, ahead of only Queretaro (17th) and Santos Laguna (18th), but their last three defeats in the competition were by a single goal and they certainly raised their game for last week's 'Derby of the Americas' against Botafogo, albeit the Brazilians may have been feeling the effects of winning the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A three days earlier.

Nevertheless, you can bet Pachuca will dig in and make things as difficult as possible for their glamorous opponents, and Real Madrid aren't exactly awash with confidence right now.

I'm convinced Ancelotti's side will take the trophy back to Madrid but I'm not forecasting a big win and, in fact, I'm backing Pachuca on the +2 handicap, meaning that the Mexicans begin with a theoretical two-goal advantage.

A scrappy 1-0 or 2-1 win would do for Los Blancos and those scorelines would be my pick if I were to try and nail a correct one inside regulation time, but I'm also open to the possibility of Pachuca taking the game to extra-time and/or penalties, so backing them on the +2 handicap at 5/4 appeals.

Offers

Acca Flex: Place a pre-match 5+ leg Football accumulator and get a CASH bonus up to 100% if all of your selections win or your money back as CASH if one leg lets you down.

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