England vs Belgium prediction: WORLD: Friendly International betting tips on match 2024-03-25 19:45.
[p]England were probably relieved to get on the pitch on Saturday against Brazil (L 1-0) following a build-up marred by controversy surrounding Ben White making himself unavailable and their redesigned kit. Manager Gareth Southgate handed debuts to Anthony Gordon, Ezri Konsa and Kobbie Mainoo, but the Three Lions were undone by a late Endrick strike as they struggled for potency without regular captain Harry Kane.[/p]
[p]Southgate called their first defeat in regulation time at Wembley in 21 games (W15, D6 – 90-minute outcomes) a “useful experiment”, and he’ll be looking at other options against Belgium with Kane, as well as Harry Maguire, Kyle Walker and Bukayo Saka unavailable. Brentford’s Ivan Toney appears poised to lead the line as England seek to uphold an unbeaten H2H record at home (W6, D1).[/p]
[p]The Belgians arrive having also suffered an underwhelming result on Saturday after drawing 0-0 with the Republic of Ireland, although it did extend their unbeaten run to 12 matches (W8, D4). They rode their luck at times as Ireland missed a penalty, and some observers took issue afterwards with manager Domenico Tedesco’s view that the fixture was “a boring game, not a good one”![/p]
[p]However dull he thought it was, it helped the Red Devils make it six away games without defeat (W5, D1), although it was their first such game in which they failed to score since September 2022. Romelu Lukaku, who scored on Belgium’s last visit to Wembley (L 2-1 in 2020), is reportedly available to inject some excitement here, but this stadium – old or new – has not been a happy hunting ground for the visitors (D1, L3).[/p]
[p]Players to watch: England’s Toney has earned his chance by scoring four times for Brentford since returning from suspension, with the last three of those strikes arriving between the 65th and 80th minute. Lukaku has scored five of Belgium’s last seven goals, all of them between the 15th and 40th minute![/p]
[p]Hot stat: Seven of the last nine H2Hs produced under 2.5 goals (England: W4, D1, L4).[/p]