It's time to back our boys

13 April 2012

Betting should be about the head and not the heart, but I reckon England might make a lot of people happy and a bit richer tomorrow. So far, I have advised against putting money on Sven-Goran Eriksson's team progressing in the World Cup. However, they have now managed to change my mind.

Odds of 5-1 for England to finish bottom of Group F looked good at the start because having Emile Heskey on the left wing was never going to work.

Since they have pushed him into his favourite position up front and brought in West Ham's Trevor Sinclair on the left, the team have looked much better and more balanced.

David Beckham must be a lot fitter now after three games and I think he owes the team one of his best performances. If he can produce tomorrow it would make a lot of difference in the service to the strikers.

But I agree with most people that it will be tight against Denmark.

I don't think there are any games now where England will score a lot of goals so I reckon a draw at 9-5 is a sensible bet.

A lot of people might be tempted by some bookmakers offering around 3-1 on Denmark to win but I really don't think that will happen.

I believe it will go to extra-time and we will go through. You can get 7-1 for England to win in extra-time and 11-1 to go through on penalties, which are risky bets but I reckon one of them would come off.

I know everybody is worried about penalties because of what happened in the past but this time it is different.

There will not be a repeat of France '98 when someone who had never taken a penalty before - David Batty - took a spot-kick and did not score.

You could probably pick six or seven of this team to take penalties and be confident that they know what they are doing.

But in terms of great value at this stage of the finals, there is not much. Bets like first scorer and half-time and full-time scores might get you longer odds but they are mostly just shots in the dark and I would leave them well alone.

For a better outside value bet take a look at the Republic of Ireland. I know they face Spain, who are a good side, but Mick McCarthy's team have proved they will run anyone close.

They are tight at the back and can always bring on Niall Quinn up front who will give anyone problems. Ireland are 4-1 to beat Spain and it's 9-4 for the draw, which looks okay.

Otherwise, I would be very cautious. Teams like Senegal might have done well so far but you never really know when they will have a bad day because they are very unpredictable.

I would not like to call their game against Sweden.

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David Beckham

David Jones (Footballer)

It's time to back our boys

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