Where to put that couple of quid this International weekend

A regular trap that punters fall into is blindly backing England no
matter what the price may be and that brings us neatly around to
Saturday’s internationals fixtures. Steve McClaren’s team are a
top-priced 4-11 to beat Israel at Wembley which looks remarkably thin –
even as an acca filler- whichever way you look at it.



We’ve all seen our boys stumble through Group E so far and that is a
big enough warning without even examining the opposition’s increasingly
impressive record at this level. They have already held England and
Russia to draws in this group and were apparently unlucky to go down
4-3 against Croatia. But it was in attempting to qualify for Germany
2006 that they became a very tough team to beat with France,
Switzerland and Republic of Ireland all failing to defeat them either
home or away. The stalemate here at 7-2 will appeal to many neutral
punters and might be worth a small saver but even an injury-stricken
England team should have enough to scrape a win on home territory. A
correct score punt seems the best option.



Goalkeeping errors aside, our defence looks sound enough against an
attack of Israel’s calibre and with Liverpool’s Benayoun stating that
his side have come for a 0-0 draw we should confident that we can keep
a clean sheet (an 8-11 shot). The question is how many will England
score? It is worth casting our minds back to qualification for Euro
2004 when a similar side- nearly identical if it weren’t for injuries-
scored exactly two in seven of their eight group games. The 2-0 home
win pays an acceptable 6-1.



No fewer than seven of England’s players are priced between 4-1 and 8-1
to break the deadlock but, despite his missed chances against Germany,
Owen is a worthy favourites at fours and is our selection after netting
for Newcastle last week.

Saturday’s Outrights (Best Prices)



England 4-11

Israel 10-1

Draw 7-2



England 1-0: 6-1, England 2-0: 6-1, England 2-1: 7-1, England 3-0: 7-1, England 3-1: 10-1, England 4-0: 14-1



Israel 1-0: 14-1, Israel 2-0: 40-1, Israel 2-1: 33-1, Draw 0-0: 7-1, Draw 1-1: 13-2, Draw 2-2: 25-1



Euro 2008

Germany 11-2

France 7-1

Holland 8-1

England 8-1 (10-1 with Betfred)

Spain 8-1

Portugal 10-1

Switzerland 20-1

Czech 20-1

Sweden 25-1

Rep of Ire 125-1

Scotland 150-1

Northern Ireland 400-1

Wales 5000-1

To Qualify

England 8-11

Rep of Ire 3-1

Scotland 7-2

Group E

Croatia 8-11

England 3-1

Russia 10-3

Israel 18-1



Looking around some of the other qualifiers on Saturday, we reckon that
after their splendid 4-0 friendly win over Denmark last month the Rep
of Ire look over-priced at 15-8 to win in Slovakia while their beaten
opponents that night will lose again away to Sweden (11-10). Holland
are fine value at 11-10 with Coral to be beating Bulgaria at both half
and full-time and Northern Ireland’s prolific David Healy is a nice
price at 5-1 to open the scoring in Latvia.



Good Luck. THE WATCHER

Photo: Action Images

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