FOOTBALL BETTING: Live on ITV: Mon 19:45 England v Mexico. A World Cup warm up for Capello’s men at Wembley and England should prevail in a potentially prickly contest.
It’s less than three weeks now until England’s first World Cup game so coach Fabio Capello will be glad to get a chance to run the rule over his players in Monday’s clash with Mexico. As it’s a friendly, it should be a fairly leisurely affair, with key players on both sides reluctant to risk injury but with only a week or so until Capello cuts his 30-man training squad down to 23, those not guaranteed a seat on the plane will be keen to impress, potentially lending the clash a slightly more competitive edge.
England are strong favourites at 1/2 with Ladbrokes to see off Javier Aguirre’s men; Totesport’s 7/1 outsiders and although in a tame affair, Betdaq’s 10/3 for it to finish all square could attract cash, especially as Mexico are a team that stand a decent chance of reaching the latter phases of the World Cup, there seems little reason to oppose the hosts as they look to get into the winning habit, roared on by a capacity crowd at Wembley.
Nevertheless, ‘El Tri’ are a solid enough outfit and indeed they defeated England’s Group C opponents USA 5-0 last year in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final, so they will be no pushovers and Capello’s charges may have to ‘settle’ for a victory by a one-goal margin (13/5, Partybets).
As Capello is set to shuffle his pack, an unsettled rearguard could concede and subsequently punters should consider William Hill’s 11/10 for both teams to net. With that one-goal margin in mind then, a 2-1 home win catches the eye at 15/2 with 888Sport, although the sides should still be level at the interval (5/4, Stan James), with England quoted by Betfred at 10/3 to kick-on from that position and prevail.
Elsewhere, with the early pace promising to be somewhat sedate, Paddy Power’s 10/11 for the opening goal to arrive after the 25th minute seems a banker, even if the game could go on to produce more than 2.5 successful strikes (10/11, Victor Chandler).
Meanwhile, Peter Crouch, a prolific international marksman can again produce in England colours and he’s a steal at 7/4 (bet365) to notch at any stage. The Spurs man has a habit of changing the game when playing for his country and so bet365’s 11/2 for him to fire the final goal is decent value and the prospect of late goals lends appeal to Jaxx.com’s 7/10 for the scoring to be rounded off in the final 15 minutes.
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