Thomas Tuchel should enjoy an easy ride in his first match as England manager
Kane and Co should bag a few goals.
Thomas Tuchel begins his career as England manager with a World Cup qualifier at Wembley which is as pedestrian as international matches come.
Albania are the stooges in the first of the group-stage games which also includes gimmes against Andorra and Latvia plus a slightly stiffer task against Serbia, and if the former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss can’t steer his way through those challenges without dropping more than two points then heaven help us.
An expanded World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada really should feature all the best nations because it is almost impossible not to get there with 48 places up for grabs.
Yes, 48. A prime example of quantity over quality, with the finals being staged over 39 days and the number of matches increasing from 64 to 104. It will take some doing to watch all of those.
As for the qualifiers, 54 European nations are chasing 16 spots and the winners of each group will book their tickets to the finals while the runners-up will go into the play-offs, which may or may not include some Nations League teams. To be brutally honest, it became extremely depressing and boring working it all out and there are better things to do on a lovely day, especially as these details won’t concern the Three Lions.
Suffice to say there should be an angry mob brandishing burning torches and waving pitchforks as they march down Wembley Way if Tuchel doesn’t get England through.
His first squad includes Newcastle’s Carabao Cup hero Dan Burn, who is poised to win his first cap, along with recalls for Marcus Rashford, which makes sense as he has been in electrifying form since his loan move to Aston Villa, and Ajax captain Jordan Henderson who is 34 and likely to be well past his prime in two years’ time.
The best of all the squad announcements was probably the slightly belated call for Morgan Gibbs-White, who has excelled for Nottingham Forest during their remarkable season and he is worth following to score against Albania at any time at 19/10 with SpreadEx.
Captain Harry Kane is 11/4 with Sky Bet to break the deadlock and England are just 8/13 to win without conceding a goal. The last time Albania visited Wembley they were thumped 5-0 and a repeat is 16/1 although a more sedate 4-0 is more likely at 9/1 with Star Sports.
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• The PGA Tour’s Florida Swing continues with the Valspar Championship at Copperhead where golfers must avoid being bitten by the Snake Pit bunker. Shane Lowry is 33/1 with Paddy Power and Betfair to win the tournament while Corey Conners is 28/1 with the same firms, who offer 55/1 on Stephan Jaeger and 60/1 on our final each-way, Lucas Glover.
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