Portugal and Argentina continue to struggle, Peter Crouch maintains his record

Five stats about this week’s internationals

1. Peter Crouch wasn’t too impressive last night but maintained his incredible international goal-to-start record, with 14 goals in his last 14 starts.

2. England’s 21-point haul from their first seven qualifiers is a drastic improvement on 14 from their first seven in the Euro 2008 campaign, although they did have 19 at this stage under Sven-Goran Eriksson in qualification for the last World Cup.

3. Anyone who thought Portugal had turned the corner with their last-gasp 2-1 win over Albania was proved wrong last night when they drew 0-0 away to Estonia in a friendly. That result was particularly worrying as they were actually performing fairly well in friendlies prior to that, winning four of their previous five.

Posted: June 11th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Andorra are 229/1 to beat England tonight, 79/1 to draw

England/Andorra, 8.15pm, ITV1, Free Bets, Best Odds

If there is one criticism of England under Fabio Capello, it’s that they take too long to break down minnows. It took 49 minutes to break down Andorra in Barcelona, 52 to find a way past Kazakhstan at Wembley and then 40 away to them last weekend. Andorra boss David Rodrigo has noticed the trend and plans to frustrate the Three Lions tonight, although Betfair odds of 229/1 show that he’s not expected to have much success. Here are some stats about what surely must be a home banker, even if it’s played in front of no fans:

Click here to claim a £25 no loss bet with Betfair

» England have won their three previous meetings with Andorra without conceding a goal, scoring ten in the process.

» Andorra coach Rodrigo’s claimed that “England have always had problems when they have played against us and have been made to work hard to get the first goal.” However, they were beaten 5-0 on their last trip to Wembley in 2006 with the opening goal coming in the fifth minute from Peter Crouch.

» The minnows have lost their last 20 competitive games and their overall record in qualifying games is P58 W1 D2 L55. They’ve taken just a point from 29 away qualifiers - a 0-0 draw in FYR Macedonia in February 2005.

Posted: June 10th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment