England v Brazil Betting: England won’t dodge a beating this time. It is not often the Germans let you down when short-priced favourites but they did just that against an inexperienced England at Wembley on the weekend. The 0-0 draw was a big tick for England’s next generation of wannabees rather than Germany’s stars.
Of course, the hype that has followed England’s stalemate against the world champions has been just that. It was a decent performance – notably from Ruben Loftus-Cheek – but the bald facts were that the average age of the two teams were exactly the same. It’s just that Germany’s players had twice as much experience. So the back slapping in England all sounded rather hollow.
If England’s kids got away with one against the Germans, they try their luck again on Tuesday night against the might of Brazil. Again, the Brazilians are almost at full-strength. England are not. Indeed, they could be even weaker with three under-21 players in line for call-ups to play alongside the five debutants that played against Germany.
Gareth Southgate, the England coach, said he would “not hesitate” to pick Dominic Solanke, Lewis Cook, and Angus Gunn. It’s not surprising. Southgate has lost the service of Phil Jones, his most experienced available player after an injury in the Germany match, while Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Raheem Sterling remain unavailable.
In another selection angle, goalkeeper Joe Hart will return at the expense of Jordan Pickford. Pickford was excellent against Germany and it is, frankly, amazing that Hart returns here. We know all about Hart but not Pickford, who would surely have benefitted at the extra exposure.
No matter. Hart’s position back between the sticks is just another reason to go big on Brazil here. He is hugely vulnerable to angle drives down low and Brazil will know that. They are a best-priced -125 at green-listed bookmakers like Skybet, Betway, Boylesports, Bwin, BetStars, and Matcbook.
It is often said that Brazil play their football on a different planet and it will surely be true on Tuesday night. Their players are on a different galaxy to England, even if the hosts were playing a first-choice XI.
The big guns are present. The world’s most expensive player Neymar, who is among the holy trinity of Ronaldo and Leo Messi as the world’s best, should star alongside Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho and Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus. By contrast, England will have up front Tammy Abraham who looked like a colt destined to mature into a carthorse.
Best of all Brazil are sounding as if they’re treating the game seriously. Dani Alves, their skipper, said they were not treating it as a friendly and his team-mates felt inspired by the prospect of playing at Wembley.
We will also have wagers on 3-0 and 2-0 Brazil at +1500 (BetStars) and +850 (William Hill, BetStars) respectively. Neymar, who has scored in each of his last four games for Brazil, is +110 (Ladbrokes, Coral, Betfair, Paddy Power, BetVictor) to score at any time.
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