New faces give fresh momentum to England
Southgate’s younger squad scoring goals galore in Euro 2020 qualifying campaign
It is three years this week since Sam Allardyce took charge of his only England match away in Slovakia. That ended in a scrappy 1-0 victory, with Adam Lallana grabbing an injury-time winner after England had struggled to break down 10-man Slovakia, who had Martin Skrtel sent off with more than half an hour left to play.
And it is testament to the way Allardyce’s successor, Gareth Southgate, has moulded his side that just three of Allardyce’s starting line-up in Slovakia – Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane – are likely to start tonight’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Bulgaria.
Southgate has drastically lowered the average age of England squads since taking control and is not afraid to test out new blood, with Tyrone Mings, Mason Mount, Declan Rice and James Maddison among the latest batch of players to be integrated into the set-up.
These could be exciting times for England, who are 11/2 secondfavourites behind World Cup winners France to win the European Championships.
Qualifying should be a formality, with England having put five goals past both the Czech Republic and Montenegro in their opening two matches in Group A. Those teams are both higher in the Fifa world rankings than Bulgaria, who have
failed to win any of their four group matches to date.
Bulgaria have failed to beat supposed Group A whipping boys Kosovo home and away, while they now look to be locked in a battle with Montenegro to avoid the wooden spoon.
With England set to face Kosovo on Tuesday night, Southgate is likely to play a full-strength side against Bulgaria tonight, and any home supporters with a ticket will be optimistic of seeing another huge England victory.
Nobody will get rich by backing England to win at 1/14 but the margin of victory might be of interest, with 4-0 a potential wager at about 11/2.
However, with England’s brilliance from set-pieces well known, it could also pay to select a defender to get on the scoresheet. Harry Maguire is always a threat from corners and free-kicks, and he is priced at 14/1 to score first and 9/2 to score at any time.