Hopefuls set to meet this Sunday on neutral ground in preparation for next month’s World Cup football tournament.
Friday 28th May 2010
The England football team is set to continue its preparations for next month’s 2010 World Cup with a friendly match in neutral Austria on Sunday evening against fellow qualifier Japan.
England finished top of a qualifying group that also contained Ukraine and Croatia in order to make it to South Africa and is one of the favourites to lift the World Cup come July 11. VictorChandler.com lists England at odds of 1/5 to defeat Japan on Sunday followed by BetDaq.com with 6/25 and Coral.co.uk, ExtraBet.com, SportingBet.com, Bwin.com and Bodog.com showing 1/4.
On Monday, England easily dismantled fellow World Cup hopeful Mexico by three goals to one and is being offered at odds of 13/50 by WBX.com to do the same to Japan. In the same way, Betfair.com lists Fabio Capello’s men at 27/100 to overcome its Asian opponents while SkyBet.com, Ladbrokes.com, 888Sport.com, StanJames.com, bet365.com, PaddyPower.com, BlueSq.com, BetFred.com, BoyleSports.com and ToteSport.com are offering 2/7.
For its part, Japan struggled to make it to South Africa after a qualifying campaign that featured a defeat to Australia and embarrassing draws against Uzbekistan and Qatar. Coral.co.uk and Ladbrokes.com are offering the ‘Samurai Blue’ at odds of 7/1 to defeat England in Graz while StanJames.com and SkyBet.com show 15/2.
Longer still, BoyleSports.com and ToteSport.com are going with 8/1 while bettors can get 17/2 on Takeshi Okada’s team beating England from SportingBet.com and bet365.com.
Japan is in a World Cup group alongside Denmark, Cameroon and The Netherlands with many pundits predicting a bottom-place finish for the team that made it into the last 16 in 2002. BetFred.com, Bwin.com and Bodog.com are showing odds 9/1 on Japan defeating England this weekend while 888Sport.com, BlueSq.com, ExtraBet.com and VictorChandler.com are going with 10/1. Similarly, punters can get odds of 21/2 from BetDaq.com winning on Sunday while WBX.com shows 121/10 followed by Betfair.com with 143/10.
A draw would be a good result for Japan as it has lost its previous two matches against Serbia and South Korea by a combined score of five goals to nil. Ladbrokes.com, ToteSport.com and SkyBet.com lists a tie at odds of 7/2 while Coral.co.uk, VictorChandler.com, BoyleSports.com, PaddyPower.com, BlueSq.com, StanJames.com, Bwin.com, 888Sport.com and Bodog.com shows 4/1.
England would not welcome a tie against weaker opposition with SportingBet.com listing this outcome at odds of 21/5 followed by BetDaq.com offering 43/10 and WBX.com, ExtraBet.com, bet365.com and BetFred.com showing 9/2.
