On Thursday evening, from 20:00, England and Ireland meet in a friendly match scheduled at the Wembley arena, in London, where the “lions” hope for a victory in front of the local rival. However, Gareth Southgate will make improvisations in the starting team, which will not include Rashford and Kane. On the other hand, the Irish team no longer has the offensive scope of previous years.
The two rivals face each other for the first time since 2015, in what will be the 8th direct friendly match between the two. Interestingly, the last three innings between England and Ireland had the same score, 0-0, all played under the sign of balance.
Otherwise, we notice that England has a tendency to play at a slightly slower pace when matches are organized without spectators, so betting on many goals is certainly not recommended. An interesting statistic shows us that in 9 of the last 12 innings played by England without spectators, no goals were scored from the action, the fixed phases being therefore at a high price.
Ireland has not won on the field of England since 1949, and the national team currently coached by Stephen Kenny has no big arguments for a surprise at Wembley: it has not won in 6 consecutive matches! Most of these games ended with at most one goal, so the white-green defense hopes to be high again, in front of England’s “reserves”. With no international goals scored in over a year, Harry Kane is preparing for the 50th selection in the Albion shirt, but Spurs’ top could enter after the break.
England comes after a lackluster 0-1 against Denmark, after notable successes with Iceland (1-0), Wales (3-0) and Belgium (2-1). However, the evolution of the “lions” has not been really great in any of these games, and Ireland hopes for a surprise. The guests, however, have big problems in attack: they have not scored for four consecutive matches, losing the duels with Finland (twice 0-1) after anemic performances. In fact, Ireland has only one victory in the previous 9 matches, creativity not being a strong point for the Dublin team.
England: Pope – Gomez, Coady, Maguire – James, Henderson, Winks, Saka – Sancho, Calvert-Lewin, Grealish
Coach: Gareth Southgate
Ireland: Randolph – Doherty, O’Shea, Long, Brady – Molumby, Hourihane, Hendrick – Conolly, Robinson, McClean
Coach: Stephen Kenny
The last 5 matches between England and Ireland (official or friendly) ended in a draw (a 0-0 and 4 1-1);
The last confrontation between the two national teams took place in 2015: Ireland – England 0-0;
Ireland has no victories in the last 6 official matches played;
England has 3 victories in the last 5 matches played (official or friendly);
In the last 6 games played by Ireland, they scored under 2.5 goals;
In 3 of the last 5 matches played by England they were under 2.5 goals;
PREDICTION: Over 2,5 goals @ 1,74
