England will be looking to continue their perfect start to the World Cup qualifying campaign when they visit Slovenia in Group F. The two sides have also met in the qualifying campaign for Euro 2016 and England won both matches, 3-1 at Wembley and 3-2 in Slovenia. There has also been a clash at the 2010 World Cup and England won that as well, 1-0 with Jermain Defoe scoring the winning goal. England have won all four previous meetings against Slovenia but never by more than two goals.
After having missed out on Euro 2016 qualification, Slovenia had a decent start to their campaign for World Cup qualifying. They started out with a 2-2 draw in Lithuania and last week they secured a 1-0 victory at home over Slovakia. They have a realistic chance of finishing second in Group F, but in order for that to happen they have to keep collecting points against their direct rivals like Slovakia, Scotland and Lithuania. Anything they can grab against England would be a more than welcome bonus.
England have a 100 percent record after two games but they have not impressed so far. They kicked things off with a narrow 1-0 victory in Slovakia thanks to a stoppage time goal from Adam Lallana and last week Gareth Southgate started his tenure as interim manager with a 2-0 win at home over minnows Malta. They will need to play better than that on Tuesday as Slovenia have lost just three of their last thirteen home matches and conceded just seven goals in the process (three of them against England last time out).
Probable line-ups:
Slovenia: Oblak - Struna, Samardzic, Cesar, Jokic - Ilicic, Birsa, Krhin, Kurtic, Verbic - Bezjak
England: Hart - Walker, Stones, Cahill, Rose - Henderson, Dier - Rashford, Alli, Lingard - Sturridge
My prediction: England to win 1-0.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Slovenia win - 6.50
Draw - 3.90
England win - 1.62
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Comments (1)
sharpe
10/25/16, 10:10:03 PM
It was the second game in charge for the new England boss Gareth Southgate and like the first one it wasn't impressive at all. Didn't saw the game but from England...
It was the second game in charge for the new England boss Gareth Southgate and like the first one it wasn't impressive at all. Didn't saw the game but from England manager words after the game it was clear that his team got the point only because of Joe Heart great saves and he's happy with it. England team is on a downhill since many years and I don't see that's ending under Southgate, not that it's all his fault though.
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