This weekend sees a full round of Euro 2016 qualifying matches and our soccer expert takes a look at the two games playing this Friday featuring two of the biggest names in Europe in England and Spain. Where’s the value?
England v Lithuania: 1.11 – 8.50 – 20.00
As the England v Lithuania match odds with 10bet.com suggest for this Group E clash between the group leaders and their guests at Wembley this Friday evening it looks as if the English will romp to victory and secure a fifth win in five games as they look to secure their place in France next summer. However things have not been straightforward for the home side’s boss Roy Hodgson and his squad as last weekend saw second choice goalkeeper Fraser Forster limp out of his match for Southampton and join Ben Foster on the sidelines. The former Liverpool manager in charge of the national squad has called up Robert Green and former England U-21 captain Jack Butland in their places, but he will have his fingers crossed that nothing befalls Joe Hart before kickoff.
The Manchester City ‘keeper recently showed that he is back to his best with a stunning display against Barcelona in the Champions League to keep the scoreline down as the EPL side were beaten 1-0 on a day that it could have easily been 5-0 or 6-0 to the Spaniards, but it is not the England number one that everyone is talking about in the build up to this match. That honour goes to possible debutant Harry Kane who has set the Premier League alight this season with 19 league goals to top the goalscorers chart and celebrated his call up with a hat-trick against Leicester last weekend. However, with Danny Welbeck having netted five of the 11 goals in England’s four wins so far in Group E as well as both of Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge scoring well of late for Manchester United and Liverpool will the new sensation get a chance to play at Wembley this weekend?
10bet.com’s England v Lithuania Goalscorer odds suggest that he’ll get time on the pitch as he’s joint favourite to score first, last and anytime with Rooney. We feel that with Hodgson being a conservative manager he is likely to start what he has seen perform well so far in the qualifiers and it’ll be later on in the game when Kane makes his debut. The Tottenham Hotspur striker is full of confidence right now and no matter his introduction time we see him finding the net against a Lithuanian side that was beaten 4-0 in Switzerland last time around. We feel that the value for the 21 year comes on him to bag the last goal in this England v Lithuania match at Wembley as the hosts go five for five in Group E and move further clear at the top of the group.
England v Lithuania Pick – Back Harry Kane to score the last goal of the game @ 3.60 with 10bet.com.
Spain v Ukraine: 1.29 – 5.25 – 10.50
We’re four games into the 2016 European Championship qualification campaign and Group C has a look that not many people were expecting. Right now it is Slovakia who top the group having won all of their opening four matches with these two sides who meet at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, the home of Sevilla FC, three points adrift in second and third. Many expected Spain to cruise to victory in this group despite their abject performances at the World Cup last summer, but they – and their guests this Friday evening – have both been beaten by the Slovakians so far. With the group toppers home to Luxembourg who can avoid defeat in Seville and keep close to the top of Group C?
Both of the sides involved in this Spain v Ukraine match have their strong points as the Spaniards have netted 13 goals in their four games so far to sit atop the scoring charts while the goal conceded in their 1-0 loss to Slovakia is the only goal conceded so far for the Ukrainians and they bring three clean sheets in a row into this game. Spain are missing Diego Costa with a hamstring injury for this game, but they have more than enough talent to win the game with Juventus frontman Alvaro Morata likely to replace the Chelsea striker up front. Spain have won 25 and drawn four of their last 29 on home soil and have won both of their last two games against Ukraine, although the last meeting came nine years ago.
That last game saw a 4-0 home win for the Spaniards, but they are far from the side of 2006 that would see them take the European Championship title two years later and despite their 13 goals so far we see them struggling to break down a resilient Ukraine side this Friday evening. We do agree with the 10bet.com Spain v Ukraine match odds as we see a Spanish win, but it’ll be a closely fought clash between the two teams.
Spain v Ukraine Pick – Back Spain to win and less than 2.5 goals to be scored @ 4.75 in the 10bet.com Sportsbook!