International Fever – Home Nations Preview
England
Wembley needs to be home sweet home for Roy Hodgson’s squad for their remaining matches against Montenegro and Poland. These two opponents are one’s not shy of a few key players that have shown in Europe’s top league’s what they can do so they will both come over thinking they have every chance of snatching a victory. Although, for me at least, it wouldn’t be an England international match without Welbeck and Cleverley being constantly berated on social media! Score Predictions: England 2-0 Montenegro, England 3-1 Poland.
Scotland
Croatia visit Hampden Park on Tuesday evening with both side having little to play for. The Scots could still yet finish bottom of Group A, which would frankly be a great under achievement for them. Gordon Strachan spoke about in form Blackburn striker Jordan Rhodes last week stating he has a “good chance” of playing against Croatia and comparing his league form to other strikers in the national team squad, he has every chance of fast becoming a regular for his country. Score Prediction: Croatia 2-1 Scotland.
Republic Of Ireland
A 1-0 defeat away to Austria was enough to put the final nail on Ireland’s coffin, as far as hopes of attending their second straight major tournament are concerned anyway. Giovanni Trapattoni also felt it was time for him to resign the day after leaving much rebuilding to be done before ‘France 2016’ is even muttered. Travelling over to Germany for Friday’s fixture will be one where anything but a defeat will be a miracle, but surely even without a permanent manager they can muster up a victory against Borat’s home nation. Score Predictions: Germany 3-0 ROI, ROI 1-0 Kazakhstan.
Wales
Absences for the Welsh in their qualifiers against Macedonia (H) and Belgium (A) include: Joe Ledley, Gareth Bale, Joe Allen, Sam Ricketts, Ben Davies, Danny Gabbidon and Jack Collison. Adding to their woes is that captain Ashley Williams is a doubt for both matches leaving Chris Coleman with much to do in putting out a side able to claw them from the foot of Group A. Both of these matches will be tough and a win from either would be pretty surprising. Score Predictions: Wales 0-0 Macedonia, Belgium 3-0 Wales.
Northern Ireland
Michael O’Neill hasn’t done much editing to his squad ahead of their final set of fixtures (against Azerbaijan and Israel respectively) where for me the minimum expectation should be to find a win from one of those games. This should then cement 4th place in the group for Northern Ireland, a fairly respectable finish. Score Predictions: Azerbaijan 0-1 N Ireland, Israel 2-0 N Ireland.
Looks like it’s just England who will be heading over to Brazil in an attempt not to embarrass themselves next year!
0 comments