Saturday 8th October 2016 Kickoff: 1700hrs
England v Malta
Football – International – World Cup Qualification
Despite a last minute goal to win their opening qualifier away to Slovakia last month, all the drama surrounding England has been off the park with the dismissal of Sam Allardyce as manager after only a couple of months in charge. Allardyce was the FA’s choice to replace Roy Hodgson after a dismal showing at Euro 2016, and although it appeared ‘Big Sam’ finally had his dream job, an undercover investigation by a newspaper resulted in Allardyce bringing the game into disrepute and he was subsequently relieved of his duties. He leaves with a 100% record intact and has been replaced in the interim by Gareth Southgate who has four games in which to show that he can take the national team forward on a permanent basis.
With all the turmoil off the field over the last couple of weeks, it is easy to forget that England managed to negotiate a tricky opening match against Slovakia and took all three points home with them. It may have taken a last gasp goal but they were dominant throughout and extended their run of wins in qualification campaigns to 13. They will be massive favourites to make that 14 on Saturday at Wembley against Malta before another tricky encounter in Slovenian three days later. Gareth Southgate has been promoted from the U21’s for these games as well as the next qualifier against arch rivals Scotland and the friendly match with Spain. He is in pole position to make the role his own but he’ll want to get off to a good start with a resounding win tomorrow before thinking about anything else.
Malta were slightly unfortunate last time out against Scotland as they finished the game with nine men and they can count themselves unlucky with at least one of those decisions. Their first half performance against the Scots was somewhat promising but they will be right up against it against England this weekend ahead of another away game with Lithuania. Having not won a competitive game since 2013, their main aim will be bringing that run to an end during this campaign but there will be easier opportunities to do that than the one they face at Wembley.
England v Malta Betting Tips
England coasted through their European Championships qualification campaign winning all 10 games but were bitterly disappointing in the finals themselves. It’s widely expected that they will have more than enough to ease their way to Russia in a couple of years but they also have to find an identity to take to the World Cup. Malta will not present much of a challenge on Saturday, although they will point to a 1-0 loss in Italy and 2-0 against Croatia during their last campaign as evidence of being able to frustrate the big nations. Considering all the controversy around Allardyce’s dismissal I can see England putting on a performance on Saturday and racking up a few goals. The heads of the Maltese players went down very quickly against Scotland when things conspired against them and it could be a similar story tomorrow.
Over 4.5 goals 37/40 @ Betvictor
