England v Scotland Betting Tips

Friday sees a repeat of the oldest international fixture in the world, played in 1872, as England take on Scotland at Wembley.

When Gordon Strachan was appointed Scotland manager back in 2013, many Scotsmen expected there to be a sea of change and thought they may finally see their team qualify for a major tournament. Unfortunately, things have not turned out as planned.

Firstly, the Scots were the only home nation who failed to qualify for Euro 2016 and now they’ve suffered a rather dismal start to their World Cup 2018 qualification campaign. In actual fact, they did make a good start by beating Malta 5-1 (bettering the result that England achieved), but have since stumbled by drawing at home to Lithuania before losing 3-0 away to Slovakia. Scotland are surprisingly often able to come to the party in the big games – most famously in modern times against France back in 2007. However, if you cannot secure results at home against minnows such as Lithuania then you stand pretty much no chance of qualification.

Their away form over the last few years has been dreadful and their last competitive away win against meaningful opposition came against Croatia back in June 2013.

The recent run in particular has seen real pressure put on Strachan with most Scots wanting him out of the hot seat and quite frankly I am surprised he has not already gone.

It also seems that Scottish players are in complete disharmony over Strachan. In a recent radio interview, Charlie Adam, who has not been capped for two years, accused Strachan of not picking the best players available and cited several examples of this happening. Firstly he said Strachan was selecting inexperienced players instead of players with plenty of big-game experiences and then berated the Scotland manager for not selecting the likes of Oliver Burke in his last squad, despite the Red Bull Leipzig winger putting in a great performance against Malta. Furthermore he pointed to Alan Hutton’s retirement which Adam said was down to disillusionment with the management.

Whilst all of this chaos obviously casts a shadow over the Scotland team, there is no doubt that they will be up for a match against England – at least the ones who are actually Scottish will. With so many Scotland players now selected on heritage it is hard to imagine them feeling the same about a match against England – most of them would have supported England when growing up.

England fans often complain of their football team being in the doldrums, and they undoubtedly are. However, it could be worse – they could be in Scotland’s state.

The England team are constantly lambasted by press and fans and it seems most cannot find anything positive to say about the England team. Overall this seems rather unfair and is an unbalanced view – if England beat Germany 5-0 then England fans would still find something to complain about.

Whilst English football does have a lot wrong with it, part of the problem is this constant lambasting. Why should England be any better than what they are? Rather than comparing ourselves to the world’s best, perhaps we should look at countries like Iceland and form our own model and identity?

Gareth Southgate is another victim of this constant barrage of negativity. A manager who has done well with the U21 team is not seen as the right man for the job. Is there really anybody better?

Fans point to the 0-0 draw in Slovenia and the unconvincing victory against Malta and say Southgate should not be appointed on a full-time basis. It is results that count and England have got them under Southgate in incredibly difficult circumstances. The flak he has received seems very unfair.

The squad that Southgate has selected for this match against Scotland looks pretty strong and should have too much for Scotland. Whilst they falter at major tournaments, England’s qualifying record is incredibly good and they do not tend to drop too many points –  particularly at home. The last time they lost a qualification match on home turf was that infamous 3-2 loss against Croatia under Steve McLaren.

Harry Kane has come back from injury just in time for this match and showed he is fit enough to take part in this game against Scotland by scoring in the North London derby on Sunday. This is a huge boost for England who seem to lack a decent front man without the Tottenham striker in the side.

As previously inferred, I cannot see beyond an England win here; however the market on a simple home win does not give value for money. With this in mind, I like the look of ‘England to Win & Over 2.5 Goals’ at 5/4. England should be up to scoring goals against a Scotland defence who’re yet to keep a clean sheet in this qualification campaign; however, it is also worth noting that the Scots have scored against England in their last two matches, despite losing on both occasions.

Secondly, I’ve gone with an Enhanced Odds offer from William Hill of ‘Harry Kane to Score & England to Win 2-0, 2-1 or 3-1’ at 9/2. As mentioned earlier, Kane should play in this match and I expect him to score, whilst any of the three scorelines look fairly likely. Let’s face it, if England win and score at least two goals, providing he plays, it’s hard to see Kane failing to get on the score-sheet.

Finally, the third bet to go for is ‘Highest Scoring Half – 2nd Half’ at 23/20. Both teams might looks to keep things tight during the early exchanges and thus the first half may be a bit lifeless at times. However, we should see the game open up in the second half as the Scottish team in particular start to tire and thus the then second 45 is certainly expected to provide more goals than the first. Furthermore, this bet would have won in the last two meetings between these two nations as well as in all three of Scotland’s qualifiers so far.

To see more World Cup Qualifying tips, click here.