ENGLAND's hopes of reaching the Nations League finals were extinguished by Belgium but the Three Lions will be desperate to get back to winning ways when they welcome Iceland to Wembley on Wednesday night.
First half strikes from Youri Tielemans and Dries Mertens ended England's bid to secure back-to-back Nations League finals appearances, with the latter helping me land a tasty 7/2 shot.
Consequently, Gareth Southgate's men have been mathematically eliminated but they will be keen to sign off from their section in style at Wembley on Wednesday night.
Standing in the Three Lions way this midweek is an Iceland outfit who stunned everyone at Euro 2016 when dumping England out of the tournament.
However, since that nightmare in Nice four years ago Southgate's young Lions have reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup before finishing third in the inaugural Nations League tournament two summers ago.
Iceland, meanwhile, head into this clash having lost all five of their Group A2 assignments thus far and Erik Hamren's side suffered a heart-breaking 2-1 Euro 2020 playoff defeat in Hungary last Thursday night.
Outright Betting
England have won 10 of their last 11 home matches and the odds suggest the bookies are expecting a stroll for Southgate and co by pricing them up at 1/6 with Bet 365.
Iceland have lost six of their last seven matches and the bookies expect that trend to continue with the visitors the unfancied underdogs at 16/1 with UniBet, while the draw is also deemed unlikely at 13/2 with the same firm.
Betting Angles
The bookmakers prices for this glorified friendly unsurprisingly suggest that this will be a one-sided affair and as such punters will have to dig deep to try and come up with some value.
Therefore, I'm going to get creative by making use of Bet 365‘s Bet Builder where I'm going to combine England half time/full time and England to score over zero second half goals.
The above-mentioned combination will present us with an eye-catching Even-Money punt with Bet 365 and that looks like a nice way in on a night where the visitors will be without six key players, all of whom have been granted permission to depart the squad early and return to their clubs.
With that in mind, I suspect England's superior strength and depth will see them assert their authority when they come up against a depleted and out-of-sorts Iceland outfit who have shipped 26 goals across all nine of their Nations League matches – an average of 2.8 goals against per game
What's more, the Three Lions are looking to bounce back after a 2-0 defeat in Belgium and Southgate has warned his stars that a number of places are still up for grabs in his squad for next summer's rescheduled European Championships.
There is a lot of competition for places all over the pitch and Iceland could prove to the the perfect opponents on a night where a number of Lions will look to stake a claim for place in Southgate's 23 man Euro 2020 pool.
That line of thought could also see value lie with the 27/20 match combo special on offer with 888Sport for England to win, England to take the most corners and Iceland to receive the most cards.
History shows that this is the type of assignment that the hosts are particularly efficient in dealing with and with England expected to dominate the ball for long stages at Wembley, the above-mentioned special looks like a nice way of trying to squeeze some value out of a home success.
This UEFA Nations League match between England and Iceland will be played on Nov 18, 2020 and kick off at 19:45. Check below for our tipsters best England vs Iceland prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
