England v Bulgaria
Football : Euro 2012 Qualifier
Friday 3 September 2010 - Kickoff 8pm

This game is live on TV

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England

The disappointment of the World Cup has subsided a little in England as the new Football season occupies fans' minds at the moment. However, expect memories to be revisited here as the England team plays their first qualifier for Euro 2012. This season we will see international games played on the Friday and Tuesday, giving clubs the opportunity to see their players for an extra day before the next League game.

The England squad did not have too many surprises in it although there was some criticism that there were not enough young players, like Jack Wilshire and Andy Carroll, introduced into the side as was implied after the World Cup failure. The likes of John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard miss out through injury so the England team is having a few issues at the centre back issue.

Scott Carson and Peter Crouch have since left the squad due to a family bereavement and injury. England are 7th in the Fifa World Rankings, an improvement since May which says more about the system than the team. England have won 10 straight games at Wembley, including all of the World Cup qualifiers.

Possible England Line Up: Hart, Johnson, Upson, Dawson, Cole, Walcott, Gerrard, Barry, Milner, Bent and Rooney (4-4-2)

Bulgaria

The Bulgarian side have not really recaptured the success of their World Cup team of 1994, although recently they have even failed to qualify for the main tournaments. The most famous of this generation is Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov, but he has retired from international football and leaves a big gap to fill at the top of the line up.

Bulgaria picked a full strength squad for this game. The likes of Stylian and Martin Petrov as well as Valeri Bojinov will be familiar to the England supporters and I am sure the coach, Stanimir Stoilov will be hoping to pick up at least 3 points from his first 2 matches in this qualifying section.

The side did achieve some positive results away from home during the World Cup qualifiers, with draws in Switzerland and the Republic of Ireland but they only have 1 win in their last 12 away games and have lost 3 of their last 5, including a 4-1 defeat in Cyprus.

Possible Bulgaria Line Up: Mihaylov, Manolev, Ivanov, Stotanov, Minev, Peev, Angelov, S Petrov, M Petrov, Bojinov and Kamburov (4-4-2)

Head to Head

England and Bulgaria last met in the qualifying section for Euro 2000 and on both occasions the sides picked up 1 point each.

The 2 nations have met irregularly since 1962, playing each other 8 times in the subesequent 48 years.

Prediction

Friday night football at Wembley has not attracted the support of the fans as the FA may have wanted, as many have still not forgotten the terrible World Cup. I expect there to be a big crowd but perhaps not a sell out. Fabio Capello needs a positive result from the next 2 games over the 4 days if he wants to keep those sharpening the knives at bay.

Bulgaria have failed to qualify for the last 3 international tournaments but have rarely been disgraced in their qualifying groups. They have finished 3rd in their last 2 qualifying groups and will feel they have a chance in this group if they can get off to a positive start. However, the test in England is the most difficult one they will encounter.

This looks like being an interesting match to start of this section of the Euro 2012 qualifiers. England have struggled to keep clean sheets in recent games, even at Wembley, but they do create a lot of chances here if the opposition opens up a little. Wayne Rooney is back in the goals for his club and Steven Gerrard should be given his favoured centre midfield spot, so I will pick England to win by a couple of goals.

The Pick :

England 3-1 Bulgaria

HANDICAP BETTING :

England -1.5 Asian Handicap