England vs Croatia Betting tips
How oh how are England favourites for the Euro 2008 Championships? Is it just me or are we talking about a disillusioned betting market here? A market in which the Three Lions are priced up shorter than the likes of France, Italy, Germany and Holland - it's ridiculous. If Steve McClaren and his men have any aspirations of winning the tournament itself in two years' time, then they should be, to put it bluntly, destroying teams like Macedonia when such comparative minnows come calling on English terrain. A 1-0 scrape was a fair result against the Macedonians in the lion's den that is Skopje, but a stalemate on home soil is quite unacceptable. Apart from the utterly irrepressible Steven Gerrard, England's players looked completely uninterested at Old Trafford on Saturday. Wayne Rooney looks pretty troubled to me at present. He has spent quite a bit of time on the sidelines owing to injuries and suspensions and, it would seem, these enforced periods of not doing what he does best have left a psychological mark. When England travel to Zagreb on Wednesday to take on Croatia, they will be facing their biggest test to date during McClaren's reign. The Croats might not boast the household names, but they boast cohesion, something which was absent from England's latest performance. And is absent more than it's present overall. England have played Croatia on three occasions and have beaten them twice, with the other match ending as a draw. They drew 0-0 in a friendly in 1996, prevailed 3-1 in another friendly in 2003, before beating their European counterparts 4-2 when clashing at the 2004 Euro Championships. However, in complete contrast to England, Slaven Bilic's men come into this match with a full head of steam having demolished Andorra by seven goals to nil on Saturday. Mladen Petric stole the show with a quartet of goals, while the smart duo of Ivan Klasnic and Bosko Balaban also weighed in with a goal each in what was a complete cakewalk for the Croats. You would have expected Croatia to win as they did - and England beat the Andorrans 5-0 themselves - but, regardless of the opposition, a confidence boosting win gives a team momentum, it blows the wind which stimulates the sail, and although England possess the quality and strength in depth to rise to the occasion, I will be surprised if they leave Zagreb with more than a point. The level of critiscm being directed at Frank Lampard is completely disproportionate. Sure, he's not playing as well as we know he can for his country, but he is not solely culpable for England's ineffectiveness. What England as a team are lacking is, as mentioned earlier, cohesion and a bit of creativity. Currently, they seem to be running out of ideas quickly. They need to play with a bit more industry in essence. Perhaps we expect too much of individual players. After all, season after season Lampard has improved and developed into not only the of the most rounded midfielders in the game, but one of the most consistent. However, any player, no matter how good, can endure a lean spell. Sometimes the lean spells become somewhat protracted, but Lampard has the right mindset and will come through it with flying colours. Much will depend on what McClaren decides to change, if anything, with regard to the starting 11 or formation ahead of Wednesday's game, but unless England turn the screw, I find it hard to envisage them scoring against a dogged Croatian defence. By the same token, the Three Lions' defence remains strong, even if the strikers are enduring a bout of impotence, and I have a sneak suspicion that the overriding desire not to lose on the part of both sides will see this match result in a goalless draw, about with Paddy Power off odds of 13/2. Not exciting, I know, but this looks much the most likely outcome in my opinion. Verdict - 1pt 0-0 in the correct score market @ 13/2 (Paddy Power)