The World Cup Qualifiers on Monday night sees Thomas Tuchel looking to make it two from two as he starts his journey managing England. The new era got underway with a 2-0 win over Albania on Friday and next up it’s England v Latvia at Wembley on Monday night.
PP football tipster Andrew Beasley has four flutters to add into a Bet Builder to kick off the week and get us back on the long run to domestic football.
England v Latvia Bet Builder Tips
England -3
Latvia goalkeeper to make 6+ saves
Harry Kane to score 2+ goals
Andrejs Ciganiks to be shown a card
- A Bet Builder on the above pays at approximately 50/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK HERE TO ADD IT TO YOUR BETSLIP.
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
WHEN: Monday, 24th of March, 7:45pm
WHERE: Wembley Stadium, London
TV: ITV
England -3
It’s easy to see why the FA appointed a Champions League-winning manager with opponents of this calibre lining up to take down the Three Lions.
We’ve yet to learn Thomas Tuchel’s international selection patterns. Will he rotate here, with tired players needing a breather before the run-ins for their club seasons get underway? Or will he go full strength as a huge victory will be good for morale?
Whatever he does, England will win. Here are four best bets you can place to make watching this foregone conclusion more interesting. The Three Lions have never faced Latvia before. They are ranked 140th in the world at present, so they should be brushed aside with ease.
Or so we assume. In November 2023, England’s previous home game against a side outside the top 100, they only beat 171st-ranked Malta 2-0. As only one minnow has scored against them since the start of the Gareth Southgate era, we can be confident England will keep a clean sheet, but how many will they score?
In Latvia’s qualification campaign for Euro 2024, they lost 4-0 in Turkey and 5-0 in Croatia. With players keen to impress their new boss, England should be able to overcome a -3 handicap.
Latvia goalkeeper to make 6+ saves
Whether the home side scores a bagful or not, they should create plenty of chances. Again, the aforementioned Malta game is an exception, but it’s worth noting that it was a dead rubber. England had already qualified for Euro 2024, and the Maltese very much could not.
While the Three Lions will still breeze through this group, whatever the result here, they will want to put on a show, so expect shots on target galore.
In three of their six home games against sides outside the top 100 in the last decade, they had at least 10, with eight on another occasion. On that basis, pick Latvian goalkeeper Krisjanis Zviedris to be a very busy boy, as well as being a great score in Scrabble.
Harry Kane to score 2+ goals
A feature of England’s home games against smaller nations is that often a player scores twice.
The identity of the three players who achieved this for Southgate illustrates how the former manager often used such games for experimentation: Jadon Sancho, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and Jesse Lingard. Remember those guys? They used to be footballers.
Harry Kane scored at least twice on 11 occasions for Tuchel last season and got off the mark for him with England on Friday. He is the obvious pick for the ‘2 or More’ option in the Player to Score Multiple Goals market, though you may want to wait for the starting XI to be confirmed before putting your hard-earned pennies on the line.
Pick whoever happens to be playing centre-forward, basically.
Andrejs Ciganiks to be shown a card
Players from lower-ranked footballing nations have been known to escape bookings against England. San Marino might have lost 5-0 at Wembley in 2021, but they didn’t receive any yellow cards.
A moral victory, anyone? They probably didn’t get close enough to anybody to kick them, to be honest.
Latvia are unlikely to escape the same disciplinary fate. Their enforcer in chief could be Andrejs Ciganiks, a left-sided defender/wing-back who plays for FC Luzern in Switzerland.
He’s joint-top of the FBRef standings for yellow cards for Latvians in 2024/25, while only 10 men have been booked more times in the Swiss Super League this season.
Add in that he received a straight red card at Basel last month, and we clearly have a bit of a hot head on our hands. Make sure to select Ciganiks in the Player Shown a Card market.
England v Latvia Betting Tips
England -3
Latvia goalkeeper to make 6+ saves
Harry Kane to score 2+ goals
Andrejs Ciganiks to be shown a card
- A Bet Builder on the above pays at approximately 50/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK HERE TO ADD IT TO YOUR BETSLIP.
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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