England look to build on their impressive 4-0 win in Hungary when they face Andorra at Wembley on Sunday. Joe Townsend has a preview and two best bets.
England and Gareth Southgate will have every right to head into this World Cup qualifier feeling pretty chipper. Plenty of people will no doubt have been questioning the lack of incisiveness on show in the first half against Hungary on Thursday night, but the Three Lions roared into gear after the break to romp to a 4-0 victory.
It is likely to be a completely different starting XI at Wembley on Sunday, but the pattern of the game should be fairly similar.
Hungary were content to sit deep, frustrate and hope for a chance on the counter attack. Andorra won't even try and counter attack.
The world's 156th-best team do tend to battle gamely though - at least for a while.
Kick-off time: 17:00 BST, Sunday
TV Channel: ITV
In June's 4-1 defeat by the Republic of Ireland, all five goals came in the second half. A few months earlier, defeat by the same scoreline to Hungary saw three of their four goals conceded come after the break.
And in their second World Cup qualifier of the current process, away at Poland, two of the hosts' goals in a 3-0 win were scored in the second period.
All of that makes the 10/11 about HIGHEST SCORING HALF - SECOND HALF well worth getting behind.
It has paid out in three of England's past five fixtures, too, with only the nail-biting Euro 2020 semi-final and final with Denmark and Italy respectively failing to do so, and even they were ties rather than the first half seeing more goals.
The other route worth going down is opposing goals.
Only once since 2016 have Andorra conceded more than four goals in a game, and bizarrely that was against Latvia.
Poland, Switzerland, Portugal, Turkey and France have all found them to be a harder nut to crack than most would have expected, with it rare that the Andorrans are breached more than three times.
There have been 40 fixtures since Andorra suffered a 6-0 shellacking by Portugal in 2016 and UNDER 5.5 GOALS has paid on every single one of those occasions, making the 10/13 best price - and 8/11 available generally - too generous.
It's a lot to ask of an overhauled England team, whose star names will be rested ahead of a tough trip to Poland on Wednesday, to gel enough to completely tear apart an opponent that has held relatively firm for five years.
That will make the 6/4 on Under 4.5 goals appeal to some, but taking the greater security of the additional goal given the information to hand is advised.
England v Andorra best bets and score prediction
- 2pts Under 5.5 Goals at 10/13 (Mansion Bet)
- 1.5pts Highest Scoring Half - Second Half at 10/11 (bet365)
Score prediction: England 4-0 Andorra (Sky Bet odds: 11/2)
Odds correct at 1035 BST (03/09/21)
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
Fast Results
Scores
