How many will England win by?
Published:Lithuania step into Three Lions’ den
England aim to take a step closer to Russia on Sunday when welcoming the also-rans of international football to Wembley. The match is live on ITV from 5.00pm and punters are left predicting just how many The Three Lions will win by. Click here to place your match bets at Coral.
Gareth Southgate’s England enter game five of their Group F qualification campaign top of the pool, showing a record of three wins and a draw. That run includes a morale-boosting 3-0 victory over Scotland at this venue last time out. Sturridge, Lallana and Cahill were on the scoresheet that day, making for an easy night’s work.
Past results support England to nil
Their preparation for Sunday’s clash took a knock in midweek when suffering a 1-0 defeat away to Germany in a fiery friendly. Lukas Podolski scored a second-half screamer, a goal worthy of winning any match at any level of football. England came out of the test with credit though, having played some nice football and run their hosts close on the night.
This will be the first meeting between England and Lithuania since October 2015, and only the second ever. As you would expect, the boys from Wembley have won each of those previous ties, both without conceding a goal. 4-0 and 3-0 makes up the head-to-head record, and Southgate’s side to win to nil again has plenty of appeal at Coral’s 1/2. Not a bad price at all, especially when we see the home side nailed-on in the match result market at 1/9.
Lallana looking to continue his scoring run
Punters keen to weed out a bit more value for their stake money can have a go on the goal scorer markets with us. In their four-previous group matches, Sturridge and Lallana have scored two goals each. The former won’t feature through injury, making teammate Adam Lallana the obvious pick. The 28-year-old attacker is 11/2 to score first, or 8/5 in the anytime market. Jamie Vardy should’ve had a penalty against Germany, and the in-form Leicester hitman is 13/5 favourite to break the deadlock.
Opponents Lithuania got a draw from Scotland and Slovenia, before picking up a rare win vs Malta, but they aren’t expected to get anything in London. Both teams to score has been written off by our odds compilers at 15/8, while they are as big as 15/2 to force a draw. Neither should be too popular in Sunday’s betting. Judging by previous meetings between England and Lithuania, the away side would need a big start on the handicap, and they can be backed +3 goals at 3/4.