Interesting internationals today, and a chance to look for value bets, like yesterday, where the utra shorties did exactly as expected, winning 4-0 and 5-0. This should be what we expect from Eng-er-land tonight.

2pm – Czech Rep U19 v Moldova U19 – 1.31 home – 

4pm – Russia v Portugal – 2.72 away. Interesting that Portugal are relatively high, and similarly priced to Russia. Form will show why the market is less hot on the Pork and Cheese? I would have instinctively had the Portugeuse at a shorter price than the Russians who have had trouble scoring in some matches.  What immediately grabs me about russia is their strong form of late. Only 1 loss in the last 20 matches was a 1-0 away loss to greece. The form of opposition though has generally been questionable. Portugal you suspect are a step up. Russia are doing the business against the minnows in World Cup qualifying so far with 2-0 home win against Northern Ireland and 0-4 away win against Israel.

No defeat in 10 at home for Russia in all competitions but I see the likes of Armenia, Northern Ireland, Andorra .

Russia have been extremely strong historically in World Cup qualifiers only losing 3 since 2004, 2 of which were against Germany. Only 1 defeat at home since 2002 in World Cup European Qualification was a 0-1 v Germany in 2009. This really is solid form. Difficult to evaluate of course as the team changes out of necessity year on year.

Portugal have found their goalscoring touch of late, scoring 3-2-1-0-2-2-3. Recent matches have been against panama,Luxembourg and Azerbaijan, and again this is a step up.

After a recent away run of only 2 wins in 10 , Portugal have won their last 3 away matches against Denmark, Czechs and Luxembourg.

Portugal have as equally an impressive record in the World Cup European Qualification. Only 1 defeat, a 2-3 90th minute DAnish winner, since 1996 and Portugal have won their last 7 European World Cup qualifiers, keeping 6 clean sheets.

No defeat in 21 away in WC qualification.

This is far too tight to call. Both teams have exceptional records in World Cup qualification throughout the years, which suggests the draw is most likely? Not a match I can get an angle in.

5pm-Czech Republic v Malta – 1.09 home _ I just did the research on this which disappeared. basically, Czechs have had trouble scoring, and Malta recently only lost 2-0 to Italy, so I would look to back to lay 0-0 and hope Czech troubles continue for a good period and Malta show the defensive endeavour they did against Italy.

5pm-Faroe Islands v Sweden -1.12 away – faroes last 2 wins came at home in 2009 and 2011 against Estonia and Lithuania when they scored 2 goals in each match. 15 defeats, 2 draws ( Northern Ireland and Luxembourg) and said win v Estonia the record in last 19 matches.

Faroes generally do not score in defeat. So if they score , it could be a positive result. The odds suggest Sweden win easily, so w win to nil perhaps?

Faroes kept Italy to 0-1 in September 2011 but keeping Ibra quiet – that’s another matter entirely. The last win in qualifiers was a 2-1 v Lithuania. Faroes lost 3-0 away to Germany in 2012  and at home in 11 of their last 12 defeats , they have failed to score.

Swedes have not had a draw in 20 matches and that surely is not expected tonight. No draw in their last 15 matches in all competitions.recent away defeats have come against Hungary,Denmark, Ukraine and England.

The matches in which Sweden have dropped points in qualifying have been either 1-0 defeats or 0-0 draws.

A recent 0-1 win against minnows Malta hides a multitude of sins – A 59th minute own goal the only separator.

Could Faroes take a leaf out of Malta’s book?

1-0-0-0-2-1-0 scored by Sweden in their last 7 away WC qualifiers. A problem away, or have they just met stubborn opponents?

ANGLES IN? Likely a win to nil tonight as Faroes tend not to score when they lose at home. 0-0 might be a speculative punt if we expect Sweden to be as shoddy away in qualifiers as they have been, even with a world class striker up front.

Delayed entry might pay off if Faroes frustrate for a while.

 

5pm-Germany U21 v Switzerland U21 – 1.35 home

545pm-France U21 v Norway U21 – 1.45 home

6pm – Armenia v Italy – 1.4 away – no head to heads I could find which is always a concern. Armenia could quite simply play a style of football which does not suit the Italians. There’s always that risk.

Only 1 draw in armenia’s last 17 matches was a 0-0 against Russia in March 2011. A current LWLWLWL sequence for Armenia, which, if continues will result in a Win this evening. Stretching the boundaries a tad, or is it?

Recent Armenian wins at home have come against Uzbekistan, Slovakia, Andorra, Macedonia, Canada, Kazakhstan. A motley bunch!

A 0-1 win against Malta in September this year perhaps suggests Armenia’s level. The 2009 World Cup qualifiers at home saw a 2-1 win against Belgium and a 1-2 loss to Spain – perfectly respectable.

Italy started 2012 poorly with losses to USA and Russia,and only have 1 win in their last 4, 2-0 v Malta. They have though lost to the likes of Spain 4-0 and England 2-1 and drew 2-2 away to Bulgaria.

The Maltese goals came in the 5th and 90th minutes – hardly convincing.

Italy might have problems this evening? Only 1 defeat though in World Cup qualifiers since 1993 was a 1-0 v Slovenia in 2004.

Italy have scored 2 in 5 of their last 6 away world cup qualifiers. They have drawn 2-2 in their last 2. A win is a must tonight. I expect Italy to out eventually. Again, this is on my delay radar in the hope Armenia are as tough to beat as Spain found them to be in 2009! can Italy score 2 goals away again? If so, then this should form the basis of the correct score.

6pm-England U21 v Serbia U21 – 1.47 home

630pm- Liechtenstein v Lithuania – 1.53 away – Leichtenstein famously beat Lithuania at home in June 2011. These are 2 bad sides and I would be less than confident sticking the wages on Lithuania. Move on!

7pm – Belarus v Spain- 1.18 away – the odds suggest an easy night tonight with the possibility of 3+ goals for the Spaniards.

Belarus have only won 1 of their last 11 matches so are meeting Spain whilst in terrible form. 2 consecutive 1-1 home draws have been against Libya and Lithuania. I suppose a look at scorelines v Italy and England in World Cup qualifiers may offer us an angle into likely scoreline tonight – 1-4 v Italy, 1-3 v Croatia and England. Will Belarus score this evening? Will they see enough of the ball?

11 wins and 2 draws in their last 13 for spain includes 10 clean sheets, so that might be your answer regarding Belarus scoring.

11 consecutive wins in World Cup qualifying and I cannot see any reason why this cannot continue tonight.

a 0-1 win against Georgia in 2012 qualifying is poor – the goal coming in the 86th minute. Again, delayed reaction here might pay off. Steam in if 0-0 at 85 minutes again!!

7pm- Moldova v Ukraine – 1.41 away

745pm – Slovakia v Latvia – 1.47 home

730pm – Netherlands v Andorra – 1.01 – as we saw yesterday, these odds do not mean we simply gloss over the match  – we look for a better value alternative to the match odds-and the correct score and goals markets seem ideally suited.

745pm – Rep of Ireland v Germany – 1.45 away – this should be a tricky old encounter for Ze Germans, away to Ireland who are marshalled by a savvy Italian. But there’s no getting away from the fact that the personnel from both sides are so contrasting.

Ireland were unbeaten in 14 matches until an unwelcome run of 3 defeats in Euro qualifiers against Croatia, Spain and Italy.

They are unbeaten in last 3, albeit 2 friendlies and an oh-so-lucky 1-2 win against Borat’s boys.

This is nowhere near good enough to stop Ze germans.

The only recent home defeat was 1-3 against Croatia.

Ireland have a very good record over the years in World Cup qualifiers. 1-0 loss to Iran 2001, 0-1 loss to France in 2005 and the Frogs won 1-0 again in November 2009.

Ireland’s only recent wins in qualifying have come against Cyprus twice, Georgia twice, and 2 goals, 89th and 90th minute against Kazakhstan.

No draw in 12 for germany and a striking run of  7 consecutive over 2.5 goals matches which form part of a run of  21 over 2.5 goals matches in their last 23.Portugal and Israel kept unders, one a friendly and the other a Euro qualifier.

Only 1 defeat in their last 26 away matches sees the Germans travel well. The loss was in a 5-3 friendly v Switzerland.

Only 1 defeat in World Cup qualifying since, erm, 1934 was that rather delightful 1-5 drubbing by Eng-er-land, when Michael Owen could still play football.

A 1-2 win over Austria in 2012 qualifying might just be the ammunition Ireland need -the winner was a penalty for Germany.

Ireland will hope this remains 0-0 for a long while and then nick a 1-0 – dreamland for Trappa. The German squad on paper look awesome while Ireland’s looks like the equivalent of a Championship side .

1-2 to Germany, maybe a goal more, after a concerted period of 0-0 could be the call this evening.

745pm – Slovenia v Cyprus – 1.51 home

8pm – England v San Marino – 1.01 home – this is all about San Marino conceding. How many do they concede usually, and can England match that? Answer these questions and we have a potential correct score bet on our hands.

 

8pm – France v Japan – 1.77 home

8pm – Luxembourg v Israel – 1.39 away

2359 – Antigua and Barbuda v USA – 1.2 away

0045 – Canada v Cuba – 1.18 home

1am – Argentina v Uruguay – 1.49 home