Wednesday, September 9th
8.00pm Kick Off at Wembley
England midfielder David Beckham could be back in a different kind of England shirt in the summer, this time one of the English Premier league club shirts. His season for LA Galaxy finishes in November, and Becks has stated that he has options to come back to England. Last year Becks was loaned out to AC Milan, who, reportedly are keen to have him back. He’s clearly not stating any names of clubs involved in taking him on loan until he returns to LA for March, but he knows the importance of keeping up his full fitness during the MLS off season. The World Cup is just around the corner, and a fit Becks is a bonus to have on the bench.
Beckham has leadership and experience, and will be somewhat embittered by the failure to qualify for Euro 2008 when the Croats beat them in the last qualifying game at Wembley. That game has been much talked about in the run up to Wednesday’s clash, but coach Fabio Capello has been keen to dismiss talk of the players being single mindedly out for revenge. Taking a cool approach, Capello pragmatically stated that the disastrous defeat for England had no bearing on current events. It was in the past and that is where it should stay, and that watching videos of that game now will not help the current English position. Instead Capello has been studying the most important games of the Group 6 Qualifying matches, including Croatia’s struggle to overturn Belarus, and how successful England were when they defeated Croatia 4-1 earlier in the campaign thanks to an Aaron Lennon hat trick.
Croatian team coach Slaven Bilic has been spouting a little bit of rhetoric ahead of the match, as he initiated the role of being protagonist in the mind games. He insisted that under Italian Fabio Capello, England had lost some of the English-ness that had always made them difficult to play against. One can only assume he will be referring to the physical force of past English teams which relied on long balls and a big physical presence up front. That certainly is not the Italian’s way, as England displayed at times in their friendly match against Slovenia on Saturday. There were passages of creative midfield play, that were slick and decisive, and with Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard at the heart of the team, there is a good balance of both power and finesse. John Terry and Wayne Rooney certainly won’t be pulling out of any physical challenges.
After thanking former West Ham and Everton defender Bilic for saving him the trouble of a thinking up a team talk, Capello’s main headache before the game has been who will be the second striker. Will he stick with Heskey up front to create room for Rooney, or will he start with the red hot Jermain Defoe who has netted five times in the last three England games? The coach knows, but he’s just not telling yet. The other main position up for contention is in Beckham’s position on the right wing. With the former Captain starting on the bench, the position will be filled by either Shaun Wright-Phillips or Aaron Lennon. Guesses will be that it will be Heskey and SWP lining up for kick off.
The only positive thing that came out of that night in 2007 in the 3-2 defeat, was the fact that it meant Steve McClaren was no longer going to be England manager. The history and disappointment of that Wembley night will still be on the minds of the few participants who were there though. Only Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry are likely starters on Wednesday from that rainy Wembley line-up. Motivation for the English should come simply from the fact that there is a World Cup place with the nation’s name on it. That is something Capello recognises as being more important than revenge.
England – 8/13 at Bet365
Draw – 11/4 at BetFred
Croatia – 11/2 at William Hill
Betting Tips. England should win, and the bookies recognise that. With the home crowd and vital points at stake, it should be a done deal. It will probably be worth backing up the England win bet with some other tasty tempters such as these…
First Scorer: Frank Lampard – 8/1 at Labdrokes. Big Frank can pop up at any time. If Rooney’s able to win a penalty again when it matters, this truly would be an awesome pick.
England to win 1-0 – 11/2 at SkyBet. A sensible bet. It’s unlikely this is going to be a high scoring match, with England not wanting any slip ups, and the fact that the late goal conceded against the Slovenians, was down to incredibly lazy defending, should have been driven home by Capello.
September 9th, 2009 / Lee A Jackson - Category: Football Betting
