Euro 2016: England vs Russia preview

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June 10th, 2016
Back Euro 2016: England vs Russia preview

England kick off their Euro 2016 campaign on Saturday evening when they face Russia in Group B. The two teams have met just twice before, during the qualification campaign for Euro 2008. England won 3-0 at Wembley but were defeated 2-1 in Russia. England finished fourth in the qualifying group at the time, missing out on the final tournament, while Russia qualified after finishing second behind Croatia.

Ryan Bertrand and Chris Smalling are injury doubts for England boss Roy Hodgson ahead of Saturday's game. Last week England secured a 1-0 friendly win against Portugal, their third consecutive victory after the 2-1 friendly defeat against the Netherlands. England have also beaten Germany and France in friendly matches after the end of the qualifying campaign, so confidence should be pretty high among Hodgson's men. Moreover, England finished the qualifying campaign with maximum points after having won all ten matches with just three goals conceded.

Confidence is not that great in the Russian camp though as disappointing results were followed by an injury to Igor Denisov, who had to be pulled out from the squad. Russia won just two of their six post-qualification friendlies, 1-0 against Portugal and 3-0 against Lithuania. They lost two of the last three matches, against France and the Czech Republic, while the last warm-up friendly resulted in a 1-1 draw against Serbia. However, Russia did win their last four Euro 2016 qualification matches, scoring at least two goals in each of the last three.

Probable line-ups:

England: Hart - Walker, Cahill, Smalling, Rose - Alli, Dier, Wilshere - Sterling - Kane, Rooney

Russia: Akinfeev - Smolnikov, Ignasevich, Berezutski, Kombarov - Ivanov, Glushakov - Kokorin, Golovin, Shatov - Dzyuba

My prediction: England to win 1-0.

Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:

England win - 1.91 Draw - 3.40 Russia win - 4.75

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