There are some nations that make qualifying for a major tournament look as easy as, well, as you’d expect, really, when you think about the balance of power across the footballing world, while others never quite deliver on the talent or wealth they can deploy. England are firmly in the latter camp, with a fanbase fed on fingernails for much of the time and once again the whole shebang comes down to ninety minutes against a team with nothing to lose and the potential to hurt Roy Hodgson’s side should they switch off for a minute. The result against Montenegro was a good, if flattering one, and after Wayne Rooney put the home side ahead there was a worrying retreat to the 18-yard box and failure to hold possession from England. Roy Hodgson may not be in thrall to possession statistics in the way so many are, but he must soon realise the value of keeping the ball if the team is to have any hope of coming back from Brazil with any shred of dignity. England are 2/7 with PaddyPower to win, and 29/10 with Ladbrokes to win by a 2-goal margin, while Wayne Rooney is 11/5 at BetFred on the score/win market. New star Andros Townsend should be fit but Ashley Cole is still injured and Leighton Baines continues in the back four, where Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are vying to replace the suspended Kyle Walker. Poland will be without defender Lukasz Piszczek, but Waldemar Fornalik is more concerned about scoring goals in what might be his last game as Poland boss, and has a fully-fit Lewandowski at his disposal. Elsewhere, the other home nations are playing for little more than pride, but the Republic have a chance to end on a home win with Kazakhstan visiting, and 888Sport offering 6’s on a 2-0 home win. Northern Ireland will do well to score in Israel, who’re 29/10 with Coral to win to nil while SkyBet only have 6/4 on Belgium beating Wale by 3 or more goals, such is the weakness in Chris Coleman’s squad. If Scotland got a home draw with Croatia, maybe a 1-1 at 13/2 with VictorChandler it would be a good result, but the 15/2 with the same folk on a 1-0 Croatian win could be better.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 07:00:00 +0000
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