England aim to increase lead at the top of Group E

The top two teams in Group E meet at Wembley on Saturday night, with the home nation England looking to cement their place at the top of the group and move a step closer to qualification for Euro 2016.

So far, England have found things comfortable in their group, playing three matches and coming away with a maximum of 9 points. This includes what is probably their most difficult match on paper, away in Switzerland, where the English came away with a great 2-0 victory. This, coupled with an easy win over minnows San Marino at home and an unconvincing 1-0 away in Estonia leaves England in pole position to win the group. This makes England favourites to defeat Slovenia at odds of 1/3 with bet365.

England`s leading goal scoring in their qualifying campaign is Arsenal`s Danny Welbeck, who currently has 3 goals to his name, 2 of which were vital in the away win over Switzerland. The striker will continue in the starting line up, especially with the ongoing absence of Daniel Sturridge and is available at 9/2 with BetVictor to get the opening goal of the game. Wayne Rooney has also been in good scoring form for England, netting 4 goals in his last 6 matches, including the winning strike in the previous match in Estonia. Rooney will be making his 100th appearance for England in this game and this will give the Manchester United forward extra motivation to score and he is on offer at 18/5 with BetVictor to score the first goal of the game.

Slovenia will be pleased with their start to the group and have their sights set on the second automatic qualifying place. A disappointing start, losing away 1-0 to Estonia was soon forgotten about with good wins at home to Switzerland 1-0 and 2-0 away to Lithuania. This leaves Slovenia in second place prior to this match on 6 points and they are 11/1 with bet365 to leave Wembley with all 3 points.

If the Slovenians are to leave Wembley with a positive result, then they will be relying on Milivoje Novakovic to get the goals. The veteran striker is joint top goal scorer in the group on 3 goals with Danny Welbeck and is available at 5/1 with bet365 to score at any time, which is tempting considering that Novakovic is also the penalty taker for his country.

Both teams have being performing well defensively of late, England have not conceded a goal in their last 4 competitive matches and Slovenia have only conceded once in their last 3 games. Despite losing away to both Uruguay and Argentina in friendly matches prior to the world cup, these were both 2-0 defeats and highlight how tough Slovenia can be to break down. The San Marino result aside, England`s attacking displays have not been prolific, scoring an average of just 1 goal per game in their last 3 competitive matches. This all points to a low scoring game, with SkyBet offering 4/5 for there to be under 2.5 goals and 9/4 for there to be under 1.5 goals.

In terms of a final result, England should have enough to break down Slovenia, who tend to adopt a defensive approach in their away matches. When Slovenia have lost a match, which has happened in 6 of their last 12 games, they have also failed to score. England are available at 20/23 with boylesports to win the match to nil and SkyBet offer 5/2 for England to win by 1 goal.

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14/11/2014     © Frixo 2026