Mark O’Haire’s Euro 2016 Tips – Lithuania v England

on October 11, 2015 at 8:38 pm

England made it nine wins out of nine in their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign with a comfortable win over Estonia at Wembley on Friday night.

Roy Hodgson’s side were able to dismiss the minnows with barely an anxious moment but the Three Lions display was pedestrian, functional and far from glamorous. The widely expected goal-glut never came and without record goalscorer Wayne Rooney, England’s attack lacks real pedigree.

Completing the clean sweep
Just five nations have ever managed to qualify for the European Championship with a 100% winning record and Hodgson is determined to keep his group motivated and professional agreed of their trip to Lithuania. Clearly adding a sixth name to that list is England’s aim.

A soft Group E has clearly aided their good run but since the disastrous World Cup exit, the Three Lions have embarked on an unbeaten streak lasting 14 fixtures (W11-D3-L0), their best sequence since 2006.

The visitors have more clean sheets (seven) than any other European rival whilst only Poland have notched more goals in qualifying than England’s 28.

Hodgson is likely to tweak his team again for Monday’s match in Vilnius. The likes of Michael Carrick, Gary Cahill, Rooney, Joe Hart and James Milner won’t be travelling with youngsters and inexperienced squad members such as Dele Alli and Jamie Vardy presented with more game time. Danny Ings and Jack Butland may also be handed a chance to impress so it’s difficult to second-guess an expected XI.

Minnows to be swept aside
England have lost one away qualifier since 2007 (in Ukraine), when they had already secured their place at the 2010 World Cup and Fabio Capello chose to rotate. But Lithuania are a far inferior force than Ukraine and never before have the Three Lions failed to record three points on the road to a similar standing side.

The David Healy inspired 1-0 success for Northern Ireland at Windsor Park in 2005 is arguably the last time England slipped up on their travels when visiting such a low-ranked nation so foreseeing a supreme 10/10 qualifying victories over the past year should be more than achievable and understandably short at 1/3.

Lithuania leaked at home to San Marino in their last Vilnius outing – San Marino’s first competitive away goal in 14 years – but the Yellows did upset the odds to pocket a point at Slovenia on Friday night. Igoris Pankratjevas’s troops have been beaten in seven of their last 10 and bar a 1-1 draw with Slovakia, have also lost to Switzerland, Slovenia, Bosnia, Czech Republic and Spain when hosting meaningful matches in the past four years.

The betting angle
England have won ‘to nil’ in seven of their nine qualifiers thus far and with Lithuania firing blanks in three of their most recent four competitive home defeats…