Seeley’s Selections – Italy v England

England make the trip to Turin tonight for their friendly against Italy full of confidence and for the first time in a while, the English betting public are behind their national team, you know what happens next?

The Three Lions produced yet another solid Euro 2016 qualification performance against Lithuania on Friday and they now have a 100 per cent record since last summer’s disaster of a World Cup and many will be tempted by the 2/1 for them to win this one with BoyleSports, I’m not.

The Azzurri beat England in Brazil and they also dumped them out of last Euro finals in the Ukraine. They have only lost two of their last twelve matches against England and at 13/8 with BoyleSports, history suggests that they don’t lose.

This is a new look England side, full of youth and pace, but this is a massive step-up from what has been a very easy qualification group for me to back them. Woy Hodgson’s men are unbeaten in their last seven away games, but who have they beaten in that period? Lithuania, Scotland, Slovenia and Estonia that’s who; nobody of the caliber of tonight’s opposition.

Italy are unbeaten in their Euro 2016 qualification campaign also, but they struggled in their last game to sneak a 2-2 draw with Bulgaria and I like the pair to draw again tonight and maintain their unbeaten recent record at 21/20 with BoyleSports.

I can’t see either side wanting to get stuck in and I believe goals will be at a minimum with both sets of players having some important and and coming fixtures and nobody will want to get injured in a meaningless friendly like this. Under 2.5 goals does looks short at 4/7, but it really is the best bet in the game and would have been a winner in six of the last 10 meetings between the pair.

With not many goals expected, there are really only two correct-score options to contemplate; 0-0 draw (no goalscorer) or a 1-1 draw and I’m taking the latter at 9/2 with BoyleSports. England’s new footballing hero Harry Kane will lead the attack alongside skipper Wayne Rooney who is trying to break Bobby Charlton’s all-time goalscoring record.

Kane took just 80 seconds to mark his international debut with a goal against Lithuania, but odds of 9/2 about him scoring the first goal and just 11/8 on him scoring at anytime are far to short for anybody to have a punt on. Rooney has 47 international goals for his country and is considered a similar price to Kane to score, which is bizarre considering Wazza takes on the penalties and free-kicks.

Neither of them tempt me for a wager but the 9/4 on Arsenal’s Theo Walcott does.
Pace is a really concern for this ageing Italian side and there aren’t many quicker than the Arsenal star, who is expected to start in this one.

Seeley’s Selections:
Italy v England – Draw @ 21/10
Under 2.5 Goals @ 4/7
Theo Walcott Anytime Goalscorer @ 9/4
Correct Score Italy-England 1-1 @ 9/2

B Lucky!