Football Betting Tips: Southgate can keep the Three Lions roaring
FOR SO long, the start of an England qualifying campaign was met with that oh-so-forgettable feeling of here we go again.
Slow, boring and lacking in enthusiasm are some of the thoughts that spring to mind when recalling some of England’s football over the past decade or so.
So when Gareth Southgate was given the role of manager, it appeared things couldn’t get much worse.
It seemed the safe option, with the former Middlesbrough defender’s only managerial experience coming as the Under-21’s boss, where despite breezing through qualifying for the 2015 European Championship, his side failed to progress past the group stages.
With so many exciting young stars in the Premier League and with the National team at rock bottom, the FA saw Southgate’s appointment as the changing of the guard, a chance for a new start, and how right they were.
We all knew they were considerably better than they were showing on the pitch, with the nation mystified as to how the likes of Raheem Sterling and Dele Alli could be so good for their respective clubs and become such peripheral figures when putting on an England shirt.
Southgate has changed this.
He has instilled a freedom in his players that the likes of Roy Hodgson and Fabio Capello couldn’t and in doing so has given the team a real togetherness which the country has warmed to.
No one would have expected Southgate to have done as well as he has – a World Cup semi-final as well as a spot in the last four of the Nations League.
Yes, he perhaps doesn’t play the most visually impressive brand of football, but it’s incredibly effective and the players have bought into it and thrived as a result.
Many England fans will already be looking forward to the Nations League semi-final against Holland in June.
However, Southgate and his players have two important European Championship qualifiers to think about first, starting with the Czech Republic at Wembley this evening.
With England odds-on and the Czechs around 12/1, the bookies see this as one-way traffic and on recent evidence, they have a fair case.
Having failed to win a match at the Euros and suffering the biggest ever loss – a 5-1 capitulation to Russia, things have settled down for the visitors somewhat under Jaroslav Šilhavý.
They finished second in their Nations League group and picked up a good away win against Poland in November.
However, Šilhavý’s squad is hardly packed with attacking power, so expect a safety-first approach.
With the lack of quality opposition, England’s recent record in Euro qualifying is very strong.
They are unbeaten in 18, with wins in 15 of those and combined with their healthy home record under Southgate (W10 D4 L1), it’s no surprise they are as short as 1/5.
A routine win looks likely, but there’s no value in tipping that so instead I’m going to back the Three Lions to win without conceding.
While I do have reservations about Jordan Pickford’s form, England have kept three clean sheets in their last five and look rock-steady at the back these days.
That coupled with the lack of threat from the Czech frontline means the 4/5 about an England win to nil looks worth snapping up.
POINTERS FRIDAY
England to win to nil 4/5