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

Iceland should get a result away to struggling Macedonia

Nordic nation evens to take advantage of the Macedonian malaise

There aren’t enough qualifiers taking place to attempt another draw treble so we’ve instead focussed on the glamour tie between Macedonia and Iceland.

Iceland are evens with 888sport to win or draw on the double chance, while they are 5/2 to draw and 7/2 to win. Macedonia have gone six games without a win - during which period they’ve drawn a home friendly with Moldova. In addition, they’ve won just one of their last six home games - against Scotland - while Iceland have lost just two of their last five on the road.

UPDATE: 888sport are also allowing in-running betting on this match, with the double chance now out to 11/10!

Click here for £50 of free bets when opening an 888sport account

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