Day: March 26, 2018

Gareth Southgate had the chance to experiment on Friday as England’s World Cup preparation got off to a winning start against an underwhelming Dutch side. England won, but in truth, it was a boring and one-sided contest in the Netherlands. The 1-0 win came thanks to a Jese Lingard strike, but Italy who are also recovering from their failure to make it to the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup should provide a tougher test.

Lingard was impressive while Dele Alli’s had a rather poor cameo and that could see the Manchester United man start ahead of him in Russia if he maintains this form, and this game against Italy offers them both another chance to stake their claim.

England are unbeaten in their last 7 games, but they have drawn against their biggest opponents at home including the likes of Brazil and Germany, while finding in relatively easy to beat lesser opponents like Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia and the very poor Netherlands.

Italy would be tougher opponents on Tuesday, even though the Azurri did fail to qualify for the World cup and lost their last friendly game in Manchester against Argentina with Messi remaining on the bench.

The last time these two countries played each other, it ended in a manner that the Brazilian team and fans would not want to remember. Germany hammered the Brazilian national team 7-1 in the semifinal of the last World Cup in their own backyard in that occasion and the Tite’s men would be looking for revenge when they take to the field in this game.

Germany have not done badly for the past 4 years, they went through the qualifiers in spectacular fashion as they won every single one of their qualifying matches, scoring 43 times, however, they would feel this game would be tougher than those matches with Brazil having a point to prove.

Brazil also had a good qualifying campaign as the lost just once, collecting 12 wins from 18 matches to become the first country to qualify for the competition. The Selecao were 10 points clear of Uruguay at the end of the South American qualifiers.

Brazil’s win over Russia last weekend makes it 8 games without a defeat for them and they have also not lost any of their last 13 away games. The Germans drew their last game against Spain to make it three consecutive draws from their last three friendlies, their fans would be expecting a better performance here on home turf.