Ireland to take advantage of tired England at Wembley
Published:Republic of Ireland play England for the first time since their infamous 1995 meeting at Lansdown Road, and the value is with the Boys in Green to shock the hosts.
It is 18 long years since crowd trouble led to that match being abandoned and Ladbrokes have the visitors at 6/1 to make their first visit to the new Wembley a triumphant one.
In their latest World Cup qualifier against Austria, Giovanni Trapattoni’s side were deprived maximum points by the right foot of Champions League winner David Alaba, whose 92nd minute screamer made the scores 2-2.
That game was only the second time the Green Army have conceded more than one goal this season, and if we can forgive them a 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Germans, their defensive record is impressive.
A 2-0 victory over Poland and a 0-0 draw with Sweden are the pick of those results and considering England could only manage a 1-1 draw with the Poles in their last meeting, the Three Lions are too short at 4/9.
A wager on Ireland to win 1-0 against a defence that is missing both the injured John Terry and the recently retired Rio Ferdinanad is decent value at 14/1.
The more ambitious punter might even like 2-0 at 25/1 but you can cover both of those eventualities with an Ireland win and under 2.5 goals at 10/1.
The Irish may well need to draw upon their fabled good fortune to get a result, but in Robbie Keane – who has been given permission to play by LA Galaxy – they have a man with 54 international goals, only six less than Wayne Rooney, Jermaine Defoe, Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck have combined. Keane is 9/1 to break the deadlock.
All odds and markets correct at time of publication
