International Football Bets
Plenty of football betting opportunities around this weekend with England playing a friendly match against Slovakia as a warm up for their World Cup game with Ukraine on Wednesday, while the rest of the home countries are involved in World Cup Qualifiers We’ve picked out what we think are the best bets from each of the matches.
England v Slovakia
England are warm favourites to beat Slovakia and are best priced 3/10 (Paddypower). It’s not too bad a price as there doesn’t look to be another real betting option as a win for England looks pretty much certain.
England will be looking to get a win on the board after their defeat in Spain last month and we can’t see any reason for that not to happen. Slovakia are an improving team who sit on top of their World Cup Qualifying Group and have beaten Northern Ireland and Poland in group matches. The match against England will be their biggest test so far, but they are well organised and capable of scoring and we think the 11/1(Coral) on offer is a bit generous-although we don’t think for a minute they will actually beat England.
It has to be a morale boosting win for England ahead of their match with the Ukraine.
Holland v Scotland
What looked an extremely tough task for the Scots now looks almost impossible after their squad was hit with a number of injuries. There have been more withdrawals from the Scotland squad than from Northern Rock when it was going bust. They look as if they will go into the game against Holland with a rookie centre back partnership and a pretty makeshift defence ,which isn’t good news if you’re facing the Dutch forward line.
When the chips are down Scotland usually raise their game and put in a good performance, but there’s no way we can contemplate backing them to win even at 12/1 (Bet365).
We don’t expect this to be a 6-0 demolition for the Dutch like the last time the two teams met in Holland but we do think Holland will run out winners. We’re taking a 3-1 correct score 12/1 (Skybet) and our selection to be first goalscorer is Wesley Sneijder 8/1 (Ladbrokes).
Wales v Finland
Wales have won their two home games and lost their two away matches in their group so far. Opponents Finland have played a game less and are two points behind Wales. The last two Wales home performances haven’t been totally convincing considering they were against the minnows of the group and although they did keep clean sheets they didn’t take their chances in either game and that could be fatal against Finland.
Finland will be no pushovers and Wales can be sure of a tough game from the uncompromising Finns. Finland were beaten 3-0 by Russia in their only away match so far, but they weren’t disgraced and put up a decent showing for much of the game.
This could be close, but we’re gong for a narrow home win with a correct score bet on the 1-0 result 11/2 (Paddypower). Craig Bellamy 6/1 (Coral) is our pick to be first goalscorer.
Northern Ireland v Poland
Northern Ireland have made a decent start to their campaign and could move above Poland with a win. Poland lost away to group leaders Slovakia but have reasonable away form winning three of their last five away matches. This game looks hard to call and so we’re going to sit on the fence a bit and go for a draw. We’re selecting a 0-0 correct score 15/2 (Skybet).
Rep of Ireland v Bulgaria
Ireland are unbeaten in their four group games so far and with Bulgaria having only managed three draws in their matches so far another win for Ireland looks likely.
At 10/11 (Paddypower) the Republic look a decent bet and wit Bulgaria failing to find the net in two of their last three games, taking a bet on Ireland to win to Nil at 2/1 (Ladbrokes) look very tempting. Stephen Hunt 14/1 (Bet365) could pop up with the first goal.