ENGLAND v MONTENEGRO
Football : Euro 2012 Qualifier
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 - Start 8:00PM GMT

---

ENGLAND

England have begun their qualification campaign for Euro 2012 in very good fashion. A 4-0 win over Bulgaria, featuring a Defoe hattrick, was followed by a 3-1 win over the Swiss, leaving us in 1st position in the group. That has now become 2nd, as Montenegro are now the group leaders after last Friday's result.

The good news is that England have banged in 7 goals now in just 2 games, so clearly the strikers are doing for their country what their respective clubs are reluctantly paying for. The dropping of Robert Green as keeper has made a big improvement to the team too, as new boy Joe Hart has let in just 1 goal.

Injuries to Darren Bent and Frank Lampard will see them miss out, as will John Terry. Rio Ferdinand is back in the team however, giving the defence less to worry about, while the midfield will still have Gareth Barry and Steven Gerrard. Hattrick hero Defoe was injured and hasn't been available since, but England will have Rooney playing up front, along with Peter Crouch.

MONTENEGRO

Montenegro have now notched up a 3-0 record over the first 3 matches, and lead the group over England. They have, however, scored 4 goals less than us, despite having played a game more!

Montenegro are quite a new team, and so teams tend to not know what to expect from them, and boy have the capitalised on this. They have relied on solid defending and counter attacks to register 1-0 wins over the Swiss, Bulgaria and Wales. Mirko Vucinic is the man to watch out for, as the Roma forward is capable of leading some great counter strikes.

The defence has looked solid as usual, but then again they've not really been tested. If England could score, especially early, it will be interesting to see what happens to Montenegro. Will they continue to stick to their defend first plan, or go forward and get caught?

BETTING VERDICT

Got a gut feeling Montenegro will score here, what with key players out for England.

But I also think England will win. That spells over, and thats what I'm going to suggest, seeing as the price on the home win is a joke.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Over 2.5 goals

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Over 2.5 goals @ 1.75 (Pinnacle)