England started their World Cup qualification campaign with a professional performance against international minnows Moldova on Friday night coming away with a 5-0 victory in what could have been a difficult night for the Three Lions. Roy Hogdson set out his stall early and thanks to an early penalty from Frank Lampard England ran easily with an easy victory and their first step towards Brazil 2014.
England were missing a host of key players in Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole, Scott Parker, Ashley Young and Andy Carroll to name a few but thanks to a double from Frank Lampard a second goal in two matches from Jermain Defoe, James Milner and Leighton Baines gave England the perfect start to World Cup qualification. England face much tougher test in this group but know these tricky away ties are important to come away with all three points. The one down side to the win was the injury to England captain John Terry who will miss this next match against Ukraine.
England will know Ukraine very well having only recently played the Euro 2012 host a matter of months ago, that time England ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a Wayne Rooney headed goal which actually knocked the host nation out of the competition and England through to a semi-final against Italy. England will have the benefit of playing this fixture in front of a home crowd something that was very different in Ukraine two months ago.
The betting market on the England v Ukraine market is interesting as the home side come into the match as the massive bookies favourites at 2/5 whilst Ukraine are a best priced 9/1 to take all three points. If Ukraine were to come away with all three points that would be Roy Hodsgon’s first defeat as England boss.
Jermaine Defoe is likely to start to the match upfront after scoring in two of his last outings from England and he’s 9/2 to open the scoring for England. Frank Lampard opened the scoring against Moldova and is 13/2 to do so against Ukraine which looks a good bet with the Chelsea man on penalties. Steven Gerrard is available at 8/1 to open the scoring for the Three Lions whilst Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is 10/1 to open his England account with the first goal against Ukraine.
Ethan Rowe of Tips-free-bets.com suggests backing England to win at HT and at FT at Evens and he also has a selection of his favourite free bets here
Tags: Betting Tips, bettng, englan, England, ukraine