International Football – Holland V England

England take on Holland on Wednesday night in an International friendly, which should wet the appetite of football fans around the world.

Steve McClaren's team of world stars lost 2-0 last time out against Croatia in the European Championship qualifiers so they will be hoping for much better this time out. England's last three games have seen them score only one goal and win only once against opposition they have been expected to beat so an improvement in form will be very much needed if they are to overcome Marco Van Basten's young Dutch side who impressed with some free flowing and entertaining football in the last world cup.

Gary Neville unfortunately misses out for England as he is suffering from a recurrence of a calf muscle injury. However, this is good news for teenager Micah Richards of Manchester City, who has been included in a senior squad for the first time in his short career, so Richards will get his chance earlier than expected at right-back due to Neville's forced exclusion.

This England squad is almost totally unchanged from the one that was selected for the games against Macedonia and Croatia, where England were largely disappointing so McClaren will have to find some extra motivation for his charges ahead of this tricky game. He will be boosted though by some important returnees in Joe Cole, who plays his first international since the World Cup and Andrew Johnson who will play alongside Wayne Rooney up front. Aaron Lennon did initially declare himself fit and was in contention for a place but again he has suffered another injury set back and will miss out on the action.

The full team that will represent England against Holland is; Robinson, Richards, Ferdinand, Terry, A Cole, Gerrard, Carrick, Lampard, J Cole, Rooney, Johnson.

England's and Holland's players will be very familiar with each other as Dutch coach Marco van Basten has included eight British based players in his squad, however he has decided to rest keeper Edwin van der Sar, who would normally be an automatic inclusion in the Dutch squad.

All England fans will remember that epic and fantastic 4-1 win over Holland at Euro 2006 but things haven't been so great for the three lions in the last three friendly encounters. Holland were 2-0 winners over England in 2001 and since then the sides have had a 1-1 draw at the Amsterdam Arena in 2002 and a 0-0 draw at Villa Park in 2005 so honours are pretty even with Holland perhaps having the slight edge in recent times.

The betting for this game is fairly tight as expected with Holland as the obvious favourites given their home advantage and better recent form. The home side are priced at 11/10 with bluesq and Ladbrokes, which is pretty good value. England are pretty good value at 12/5 with Total Bet and UK Betting; they are due a performance and the players have something to prove to Steve McClaren and the fans. The game is likely to be very tight and is almost too close to call so the draw looks good value at a very reasonable 11/5 with bet365 and Coral. The game is being shown live on BBC One (kick off 7pm) so why not get some mates around and have a punt on the first goal scorer markets. For England, Wayne Rooney is the 8/1 favourite to open the scoring with bluesq, whilst strike partner Andy Johnson is 9/1 with Ladbrokes. Peter Crouch who has been England's most prolific front man of recent months may get his chance from the bench and is priced at 8/1 with Ladbrokes and extra bet. However, if you fancy it will be the Dutch who dominate the game and open the scoring then Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt is the favourite at 7/1 with extra bet and Ladbrokes.

If that doesn't satisfy your betting needs then there are some interesting markets available on the correct score predictions; a 1-1 draw is the most fancied outcome by the bookies at 11/2 with Bet365 and UK Betting. 13/2 is the best available price on a narrow 1-0 Dutch victory through expect.com. That same 1-0 scoreline in England's favour is priced at 8/1 through sporting odds and UK Betting.

There are 22 International matches being played on Wednesday night and a selection of these is listed below, along with the kick off times and best available prices.

Austria (8/13) v Trinidad & Tobago (19/4) Draw (13/5) 19:30
Czech Republic (5/6) v Denmark (7/2) Draw (23/10) 19:00
Estonia (9/5) v Belarus (6/4) Draw (12/5) 16:00
France (10/21) v Greece (7/1) Draw (3/1) 20:00
Georgia (7/2) v Uruguay (4/5) Draw (5/2) 19:00
Italy (5/6) v Turkey (9/2) Draw (12/5) 19:50
Ivory Coast (5/4) v Sweden (5/2) Draw (9/4) 17:00
Malta (4/1) v Lithuania (5/6) Draw (12/5) 15:00
Serbia (5/6) v Norway (15/4) Draw (23/10) 19:15
Slovakia (6/5) v Bulgaria (11/5) Draw (9/4) 16:30
Spain (1/2) v Romania (7/1) Draw (3/1) 20:00
Switzerland (7/2) v Brazil (17/20) Draw (23/10) 19:30

Good luck with your selections.

Ed note: Make your international football bets at Blue Square Betting

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