England will look to step up their preparations for the World Cup as they welcome Uruguay to Wembley in a friendly on Friday night.
As expected, England have already booked their place in North America for the World Cup finals this summer after topping their qualifying group.
Thomas Tuchel’s hosts were victorious in all eight of their qualifiers, scoring on 22 occasions and failing to concede a single goal.
Another nation who have already booked their place in the World Cup finals is Uruguay, after they finished in fourth position in the CONMEBOL table.
Marcelo Bielsa’s visitors picked up 28 points from their 18 qualifiers (W7-D7-L4), meaning they finished just one point behind second-placed Ecuador, but above Paraguay in sixth and the final automatic qualifying spot on goal difference.
How the bookies view it: England favourites
Perhaps unsurprisingly given they are playing at home, England are favourites to secure the win at Wembley on Friday night, with bet365 pricing a home win at 1/2.
Uruguay are 21/4 underdogs to defeat the Three Lions in their own backyard, whilst the draw is 16/5.
Head to head: South Americans have the edge
This is a fixture that Uruguay have edged over the years, with La Celeste winning five and drawing three of their 11 meetings with England (W5-D3-L3).
The most recent of which came in the group-stages of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, with a Luis Suarez double clinching a 2-1 win against the Three Lions.
Players to watch: Bellingham back with a bang?
With so many players missing, it’s hard to know exactly who will start for England, but one man who should come back into the fold after returning from injury is Jude Bellingham.
The Real Madrid star has scored six goals and provided 10 assists across his 46 caps for the Three Lions, and is 6/5 at bet365 to Score or Assist on Friday evening.
Predicted line-ups:
Dean Henderson, Dan Burn, Marc Guehi, Jarell Quansah, Ezra Konsa, Nico O’Reilly, Elliot Anderson, Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers, Eberechi Eze, Anthony Gordon, Bukayo Saka and captain Harry Kane will all miss this clash.
Uruguay will be without midfield duo Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Torreira.
England: Pickford, Livramento, Stones, Maguire, Hall, Wharton, Mainoo, Bellingham, Madueke, Palmer, Rashford
Uruguay: Muslera, Valera, Araujo, Gimenez, Vina, Valverde, Ugarte, Pellistri, De Arrasceta, Araujo, Nunez
Anything else catch the eye?
Friendlies are hard to predict at the best of times, but even more so here with England missing so many of their first-team players.
Nevertheless, they still boast plenty of quality in their ranks, and I’m leaning towards a low-scoring win for the hosts against an Uruguay side that doesn’t tend to travel well.
Under 3.5 Goals landed in 6/8 (75%) of England’s victories in World Cup qualifying – including in all four at home – and a repeat pays an appealing 21/20 at Betfred.
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