Montenegro vs. England
Monday 25th March
19:45
There are no United players in the England squad but we’re not being left behind, as Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Luke Shaw would all have featured over the international break if injury hadn’t prevented their participation.
However, much like our attack, England have the pace, power and technical quality to trouble Montenegro, even if this is unlikely to turn into another rout as per the 5-0 win over the Czech Republic at Wembley.
Indeed, even when ignoring the minnows the Three Lions have faced in recent times (Malta, Moldova and San Marino), they’ve only managed more to score more than twice in two of 11 qualifiers on the road since 2012.
Over 3.5 goals at 3.20*
Montenegro aren’t typically a team that get thumped either and they’ve only shipped three goals or more just once in 18 home games since the start of 2014 (another fixture was awarded 3-0 to Russia as the match was abandoned with the scores goalless midway through the second half).
Although this is unlikely to get ugly, Gareth Southgate’s men are still enjoying the benefits of massive confidence and should expect – with concentration in tact – to down their hosts.
Ljubisa Tumbakovic’s team may have kept scorelines respectable, but they’ve still lost six of their last 10 on home turf since the start of 2017, as their three wins over this period came against Armenia, Romania and Lithuania.
Meanwhile, England’s ability to walk the qualifiers long pre-dates the arrival of Southgate at the helm, and they’re now 40 games home or away without defeat in such fixtures, with the most recent loss back in October 2009 to the Ukraine having already qualified for the 2010 World Cup.
With 19 wins from 21 matches since the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign kicked off, with 17 accompanying clean sheets, the win to nil appears a rock solid proposition.
England to win by 2 goals at
*all odds are subject to change
