ALEX CROOK PREVIEW: England v Wales

Even Craig Bellamy has admitted England against Wales is such a mismatch that if it were a boxing bout it would ‘never be allowed’, writes ALEX CROOK.

The Wales boss was not one to shy away from a battle in his playing days, so you can bet that despite what he is saying publicly, he will be getting his players fully psyched up in training.

England certainly will not be fooled by Bellamy’s comments into taking their first meeting since the 2022 World Cup lightly.

However, there is a good argument to be made that this ‘friendly’ has come at the wrong time for the visitors, with the crucial World Cup qualifier at home to Belgium awaiting them in Cardiff on Monday.

With that crunch clash in mind, it will be interesting to see how strong a line-up Bellamy selects and if he opts for an experimental team like the one he sent out in last month’s 1-0 friendly reverse to Canada.

That was only the Dragons’ second loss since Bellamy, who cherry-picked England as opposition to test his young team against a top ten nation, took charge in the summer of last year.

The ex-West Ham and Manchester City striker will be keen to avoid a heavy loss for the risk of denting confidence ahead of the Belgium game, which is likely to be pivotal to his team’s hopes of World Cup qualification.

In the opposite dugout, Thomas Tuchel will no doubt want to celebrate his first anniversary as England boss with an impressive performance to build on the momentum of the 5-0 thrashing of Serbia in Belgrade.

Tuchel’s decision to omit England’s Euro 2024 poster boy Jude Bellingham in order to stick with the players choreographed that victory has been the big talking point since the German named his squad last week.

With captain Harry Kane expected to sit this game out, Tuchel will make at least one change from that starting 11.

Tuchel also has Bukayo Saka to call upon after his return from injury whilst Wales are without their most experienced campaigner Aaron Ramsey, and flying Leeds winger Dan James due to injury.

In Kane’s absence, Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins will be hopeful of getting a rare start for his country, but Watkins has hardly been banging in goals so far this season.

Tuchel could opt to move Marcus Rashford, who is excelling on loan at Barcelona, into a more central role.

Rashford scored a brilliant free-kick in that 3-0 World Cup triumph in Qatar, and I could easily see him getting on the scoresheet again at odds of 7/5 with starsports.bet. Wales have a poor record in this fixture with England winning each of the last seven meetings with their neighbours from across the Severn Bridge by an aggregate score of 14-1.

Bellamy’s men have also tended to struggle away from home in non-competitive fixtures, so England -1 on the handicap at 3/4 with starsports.bet looks very solid.

In fact, the last time they won a friendly outside of Wales was a 1-0 victory in Denmark way back in 2008 when the manager himself bagged the only goal.

My build-a-bet is England to win, England to win the first half, both teams to score, no, and Marcus Rashford to score, which returns 4.02/1 with starsports.bet.

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ALEX CROOK P&L (OCT 2025): -8.50 points

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