Legendary match up at Wembley as England host Brazil in what should be a great game. New Brazil coach Dorival Junior will make his debut. England remained unbeaten in their qualifying group with 6 wins and 2 draws from 8 games. Beating Italy, Ukraine, North Macedonia, and Malta. At Wembley they were perfect with 4 straight wins and a goals difference of +13! Brazil have been very disappointing in CONMEBOL qualifying. They are 6th of 10 teams which is a disaster for them. 2 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses so far. Away from the home they have 1 win and 2 losses. Recent form is awful with a home draw to Venezuela and a crippling home loss to archrivals Argentina at Maracanã. Coupled with away defeats in Colombia and Uruguay.
Team rankings:
England – World ranked 3 with 1800 ranking points.
Brazil – World ranked 5 with 1784 ranking points.
Team news: England have several first teamers out with Trippier, Alexander Arnold, James, Grealish, Shaw unavailable. There are a few doubts as well with key men Harry Kane and Buyako Saka not yet cleared to play. Brazil also have suffered withdrawals. Casemiro, Alisson Becker, Ederson, Gabriel, Marquinhos and Martinelli all unavailable.
Coach information: Gareth Southgate seemingly has a job for life with the England FA. However, the fans don’t feel he lets his teams go in tournament play. In qualifiers they destroy everyone and always qualify with ease. Come knockout stages the team doesn’t seem to ever reach full potential. He does have a good football brain though and does play several formations. He has a very deep squad also. Dorival Junior replaces Fernando Diniz who was fired after a terrible run of results. He is quite a flexible manager and doesn’t seem tied to one formation. He prefers quick attacking football. With a Copa Libertadores and 3 Copa do Brasils under his belt he is a winner.
Head-to-head statistics: 26 games – 4 wins England, 11 Brazil and 11 draws.
Betting selection – Injuries on both sides and key men out. England in supreme form while Brazil struggling. Both sides will be boosted for this one. The fervent home crowd will be behind England. Some new manager bounce will affect Brazil. For me England will have too much for Brazil here and I take them to win at 1.95 or 19/20 10bet.