Euro qualifiers round one preview: England face recent rivals in Naples

Kicking off the Euro 2024 qualifiers with a bang, England face sworn enemies in Naples while Scotland host Cyprus and Wales travel to 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Croatia.

Northern Ireland also meet San Marino. We preview the best of the action below.

Italy v England – Thursday 19:45

England meet again with the side that defeated them at Wembley in the final of Euro 2020, and with wounds still healing after the heart-breaking loss on penalties, many England fans will be happy to see the Three Lions are favoured in the betting at 8/5.

Nonetheless, it will be a tough game for England, who haven’t beaten Italy since 2012 and will arrive in Naples off the back of a disappointing World Cup quarter-final exit to France. Italy are at only slightly longer odds of 19/10 to beat England for the third time in four games.

Despite the obvious disadvantages England will take into this match, there is a lot of confidence in the squad at the moment, with a number of England’s top players having very good seasons with their clubs, including top-of-the-league Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Aaron Ramsdale, and Manchester City’s Jack Grealish and Phil Foden. Saka to score at any time is an attractive punt at 16/5 and offers good return potential.

If it isn’t Saka to score, there is one man that will likely get on the scoresheet for England though he will first have to put his missed penalty in the World Cup quarter-final behind him. Harry Kane is 9/2 to be the first goalscorer and 17/2 to score two or more.

It’s hard to say which way this game will go, but it is likely that we will see a hefty midfield battle as the two sides fight for dominance. Therefore Marco Verratti to make over three tackles and Declan Rice over two tackles at 3/1 seems a safe bet.

Scotland v Cyprus – Saturday 14:00

Scotland’s results have been up and down since their loss to Ukraine in the World Cup qualifiers. They lost to Ireland and Turkey, and they will see this fixture against a weaker opponent in Cyprus as a great opportunity to get back on a winning curve and begin their Euro 2024 qualifiers positively.

Cyprus, on the other hand, are not considered to be on the same level as Scotland, currently sitting in 46th place in the Nations League and looking at the odds here, it shouldn’t be very close.

Scotland are 1/4 to take the victory with Cyprus at 12/1. It should be relatively simple for Scotland on the day; they have a number of players who are playing or have played at the highest league level of football in Europe. Cyprus have none.

With the result looking to be confirmed beforehand, the real value in the betting might come from the potential goal scorers with that much less set in stone. Scotland’s Che Adams is the favourite to score first at 14/5, with John McGinn favoured to score before any of the Cypriots at 8/5.

The number of goals in the game provides another market that may offer a canny punter some good potential returns. Total match goals of over 4.5 at 4/1 is a good option as Scotland are likely to come into this one firing after their disappointment in the last set of tournament qualifiers.

Another one to consider; Scotland to score in both halves at 23/20; one that will more than double the stake.

Croatia v Wales – Saturday 19:45

After a poor performance at the 2022 World Cup by Wales’s standards, this game comes as a great opportunity for the small nation to prove that they can compete with the world’s best.

Their impressive run at Euro 2016 showed the potential they possessed but it seemed to dwindle when they were knocked out in Euro 2020 by Denmark in a 4-0 thumping in the round of 16, with this form continuing to the World Cup last year where Wales only claimed one point in the group stages.

Croatia on the other hand have well and truly established themselves as one of the world heavyweights after another fantastic World Cup that saw them knockout Brazil on penalties in the quarterfinals.

This is another game that looks to have been decided before the kick off as Croatia go in as favourites at 6/10 with Wales given just a slight chance of victory at 5/1.

With Croatia’s track record of getting through games without scoring many we are backing this game to be a low scorer with odds of under 1.5 goals at 2/1 as the most attractive. Equally we are likely to see Croatia keep a clean sheet and at 10/11 this is a punt with great returns.

Croatia’s Petkovic is the most likely to score for the home side, and with Luka Modric still in great form, his odds of 7/2 to be the first goalscorer look enticing.