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

Crouch’s goal ratio, Ireland’s San Nicola success and more

Five stats about the midweek World Cup qualifiers

1. Peter Crouch has an incredible goal-to-start ratio for England and has scored thirteen goals in the last thirteen games that he has started.

2. Italy had won all eight of their previous games in Bari before being held to a 1-1 draw by the Republic of Ireland last night at the Stadio San Nicola.

3. Northern Ireland have won eight and drawn one of their last nine competitive matches at Windsor Park, compensating for the fact they have taken just four points from their last seven away games.

Posted: April 2nd, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

A glimmer of hope for Scotland as they prepare for Diego Maradona’s Argentina

Scotland/Argentina, 8pm, Sky Sports 1, Best Odds, Free Bets

Diego Maradona’s Argentina side are understandably clear favourites in tonight’s friendly at Hampden Park but don’t despair Scotland fans, we have found a pretty lengthy straw for you to clutch:

The previous two Argentina managers appointed this decade failed to get off to a winning start in their first away game. José Pekerman drew 0-0 away to Chile while Maradona’s predecessor Alfio Basile’s first game was in the United Kingdom when Argentina lost 3-0 to Brazil at the Emirates, before then losing their next away game to Spain a month later. The South American side have won none of their last five away games and encouragingly for Scotland have drawn friendlies with Switzerland and Belarus and lost to Norway over the last eighteen months. Furthermore, Scotland were 1-0 victors in their last home meeting with Argentina back in 1990.

Posted: November 19th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment