slovenia

It’s now or never for Fabio Capello and England. They need to go out and prove that they can compete on the world stage, by putting in a convincing display against Slovenia. Not only do they need a convincing display, they need a win, and it seems as if it may have to come in the face of adversity with rumours of dressing room rifts, and players not being happy with Camp Capello. This final match could be all about change for England. Will Capello stick to his guns and send out his preferred midfield and forward line-up, hoping that the players will find the belief and confidence in themselves, or will he shake things up by introducing new faces and perhaps a new formation? Capello has been forced into one change, by bringing West Ham’s Matthew Upson into the starting eleven. This is because Jamie Carragher picked up a second yellow card, and he was Ledley King’s replacement, who was Rio Ferdinand’s replacement. Upson will partner John Terry, who apparently spoke out of turn when he said that Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Joe Cole were the only players in the squad capable of breaking down defences. Capello didn’t like the criticism about his choice of personnel, even if there is a large element of truth in it from the Chelsea captain.

Still, whatever differences the players and coach may be going through, they will not want to go the same way as France. England are much better than they have shown at the 2010 FIFA World Cup so far, and they need to discover the confidence in themselves which they had through European qualification where they won 9 out of 10 matches, and Wayne Rooney and Jermain Defoe were scoring for fun. One big question surrounding Capello’s approach to the Slovenia game, is whether or not he will play Steven Gerrard in an attacking midfield role in behind lone striker Wayne Rooney. That will be using both the main strengths Rooney and Gerrard. More responsibility needs to be given to Rooney to do things his way, and the Manchester United striker, who hasn’t shown up yet, can carry the weight of being a lone striker much better than in a partnership. That move would then allow for the positive influence of Joe Cole to come in on the left hand side.

It may all stay the same. Capello likes the 4-4-2 and he may just change out Emile Heskey for either Peter Crouch or Jermain Defoe. It is a system which has worked well for him, and worked well for England. It’s how England lined up for the qualifiers, so the problem looks more like attitude and lack of confidence than any tactics. England fans just want to see a bit more pride, a bit more passion, some belting out of the National Anthem perhaps to get the blood flowing. England need to pick up the pace, whichever eleven players are charged with the responsibility at the start of the match, whatever formation Capello decides to use. The Coach has been baffled as to why the players have not responded in picking up the pace of the game when needed, and therefore the weight of failure will rest on the shoulders of this golden generation of England players. Capello names the team and names the tactics. It is down to the players to carry out the orders with some passion and drive.

England v Slovenia Betting Odds
England to win: 4/9 at Bet365
Draw: 7/2 at Victor Chandler
Slovenia to win: 8/1 at SkyBet

There will be plenty of nerves on display in Lisbon, Athens, Dublin and Moscow this coming Saturday, with eight teams battling it out for four World Cup places. These matches are sure to be popular as far as pre-match and In-Play betting is concerned, so we’ve taken a look at our favourite bookmakers to find some top promotions.

Over at bet365, they are running their usual Bore Draw Money Back offer, where correct score, HT / FT and Scorecast bets are refunded if a match finishes 0-0. We would say that these type of matches have a much stronger chance of finishing goalless, especially as the first leg games are bound to be tight and cagey. Teams will be afraid of conceding and you can bet that the likes of Bosnia and Slovenia will be setting up defensively against Portugal and Russia respectively.

Meanwhile, Paddy Power have come up with a typically crazy promotion for the Ireland v France match, which ties in with the X Factor! John and Edward are one of the favourites to be eliminated and, if they are evicted on Sunday, then your losing First Goalscorer, Correct Score and Scorecast bets will be refunded. The pair were close to being axed last week so this could be a popular promotion.

Meanwhile, although Ladbrokes don’t have any set promotions for the four matches, they are providing a unique type of bet. The Quatro enables to you to select a combination of the winning team and the amount of goals scored. For example, they offer odds of 2.50 that Ukraine win or draw in Greece PLUS there are two goals or less in the match. Similarly, Ladbrokes offer Goal Time Quatro, so for example you can back Republic of Ireland to score first PLUS the first goal being scored after the 27th minute. At odds of 4.00, it’s not a bad shout.

My personal hunch is that the matches are likely to be low-scoring. If you look at the previous first leg scores in the play-offs, there are often few goals involved and it could therefore be worth looking at the Under 2.5 Goals prices. Stan James are offering some great odds on this market, going best price for the Greece v Ukraine and the Ireland v France matches. Doing four lines of trebles on the quartet of games would return a profit if three involve two goals or less and the Bosnia manager has already stated his intention to pack out the midfield in Portugal.

Over at Unibet, they have priced up some goalscorer match bets, with Kevin Doyle being paired with Thierry Henry and Robbie Keane going head-to-head with Nicolas Anelka. Meanwhile, Canbet customers should be aware that you get a 10% bonus on any winnings from a multiple bet. Providing you include at least three selections and that your accumulator amounts to odds of at least 6.00, you can get 10% added to the pay-out.

Of course, all of the bookmakers we mention will be offering In-Play betting on the four World Cup qualifying matches, while bet365 will be streaming the games from Moscow, Lisbon and Athens so that you can watch and bet on the action!