Betting Update; England v Spain with the bookmakers making England their 6/5 favourites

PRLog (Press Release) – Feb 05, 2007 – Both squads will feature a whole host of house hold names but with the Champions League and domestic titles all entering the business end there are bound to be some star names missing from the starting eleven.

Don’t get me wrong every player wants to play for their country, especially against either Spain or England, but with a full set of fixtures just gone there is already injury news filtering through, with club managers keen not to put further strain on their players.

So far Wayne Rooney is a doubt after he was taken off at White Hart Lane on Sunday, while Owen Hargreaves has also stated that he’ll play no part after he’s still not 100% after breaking his leg a few months back.

This will open the door for some new faces like Joey Barton who’s been knocking on the door for a while now, while others like Jonathan Woodgate, Gareth Barry and Kieron Dyer make their international comebacks.

For Spain Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres returns to the team and with a lot of Premiership transfer talk surrounding the young hitman I’m sure a selection of managers will be keen to watch him further. Veteran striker Raul is left out, but defenders Carles Puyol and Sergio Ramos are included, however after watching Barcelona play on Sunday night Puyol did suffer a bad looking dead leg so could be a doubt.

This will be Steve McClaren’s sixth game in charge of the national team with his record reading P6 W3 D2 L1, and with no win in his last three the former Boro boss will be keen not give his critics any more ammo and gain a positive result here.

The bookmakers make England their 6/5 favourites and being the home side this looks about right to me, with the draw around 9/4 and Spain at 13/5.

In their last three games Spain have a mixed bag of results with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 defeat and since the World Cup have not had the best of times losing 3-2 to Northern Ireland and 2-0 to Sweden (both away). This indicates that they are not the best of travellers at the moment and although some aspects of England’s team will have a new look they will however be out to impress and at around 6/5 the Three Lions look the safest option to me.

In all the pair have met 20 times in their history with England holding a 11-6 lead with three draws. So again the stats here favour McClaren’s men, and their last friendly on home soil against Spain saw them win 3-0.

The other interesting point to note is that since Wembley’s refurbishment England have found a decent second home in Old Trafford. So far the venue has been kind to them with only 2 loses in 16 matches – P16 W11 D3 L2. While more recently their last 9 games at OT have seen eight wins and one draw.

This good form in Manchester could be down to a big make up of the past and present squad playing for United, but looking and the players with the best scoring record at that venue its Peter Crouch with eight goals and Frank Lampard on six.

Both of these players should figure again here and being in such good form for their clubs the 7/1 Crouch first goal and 9/1 Lampard first goal stand out, while for the more conservative they can be backed at 9/4 and 5/2 respectively just to score.

So in a cagey game to call with both managers trying out different options based on the ‘out to impress factor’ and England’s great Old Trafford record the bet is to take Spain on with England at 6/5 to win the game. Another bet that stood out is England to keep a clean sheet at 5/4. Of all the positions the defence should have the most familiar look to it and with four clean sheets in their last four games in Manchester this further adds to my confidence.


Recommended bets

3pts - England to win
2pts - England Clean Sheet
1pt - Lampard to score at anytime
1pt - Crouch to score 1st

* All prices correct at time of writing.

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