It has been a positive start for Roy Hodgson as English coach. Nothing sensational but a narrow victory over Norway in Oslo it is something we must be happy with. This match was the first of their two pre-Euro 2012 warm-up friendlies and Ashley Young gave England a 1-0 victory at the Ullevaal Stadium.
It was the first time that the team was managed by Roy Hodgson and the Three Lions started with Andy Carroll upfront with Ashley Young in support and Steward Downing and James Milner in the wings. The captain of the team was Steven Gerrard who was at the centre alongside Scott Parker. Things are not going to change much at Euro 2012 as Roy Hodgson is old school and will not be experimenting too much (this is probably the reason why the FA assigned the job to him). It took just nine minutes for Hodgson to see the first goal as England manager and it came from Manchester United winger Ashley Young.
The former Aston Villa player took the ball just in advance of the half way line and cut into the Norwegian defence turning around Fulham centre back Brede Handeland before slotting the ball home in the far corner. It was a great goal and every one expects much of the same from Young in next month tournament. The rest of the half was less entertaining as neither side seriously created any threat. Whoever placed a bet on Ashley Young first goalscorer did well as the player was matched at 12.0 with the 0-1 at Half Time that was as high as 5.0.
In the second half there were a lot of substitutions as usually happen in those type of international friendly games. The game changed into a stop-start affair to allow the changes but Norway were arguably the better side. Even if they kept more possession of the ball Norway was however unable to create problems to Englang’s goalkeeper. England were backed at 2.48 to win this game and the correct score was at 9.60. The Over 1.50 goals was priced at just 1.11 in-play as soon as England scored the first goal.
There were a lot of warm up friendlies across Europe with Spain who recorded a comfortable 2-0 win over Serbia and Republic of Ireland and Poland who also narrowly won. The biggest surprise of the day came from Basel where second favourite Germany crushed. Holland didn’t do much better and were defeated in Amsterdam by Bulgaria. Looking at the outright market for Euro 2012 betting Spain remain the 4.0 favourites to win the competition just ahead of Germany at 4.2 with the Netherlands (8.2), England (12.5), France (13.5) and Italy (15.0) the next four nations listed.
Pentin