England v Ecuador (8pm, ITV)

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he best laid plans and all that …..

England’s World Cup training session in Miami hit the buffers on Monday when they were forced to train INDOORS after torrential storms hit the area.

So much for acclimatising for the weather they are likely to experience in Brazil. If they wanted rain they could have just stayed in the UK 😉

They now have just two more matches before the competition proper starts on June 12 – a week tomorrow !!

First up tonight though is a meeting with fellow World Cup rivals Ecuador (ITV 8pm) who are around SIX times the price of England on the outright market with Star Sports. It’s the first of two final prep games in the Sun Life Stadium finishing with Honduras on Saturday.

England have only met Ecuador twice, and won on both occasions:

HEAD TO HEAD
Jun 2006 World Cup England 1-0 Ecuador
May 1970 International Ecuador 0-2 England

Both teams are likely to field ‘experimental’ sides – which of course is always one of the problems with friendlies so close to a major tournament.

Hodgson looks set to shuffle his chess pieces around a little tonight with James Milner being trialled in a right back role and the other key change is that Wayne Rooney is expected to be out wide rather than up front as he continues to hit peak fitness ahead of Brazil.

There’s also a change in goal with Ben Foster replacing Joe Hart.

If you want to guess the team Hodgson issued a massive clue by saying “Look at the team who played against Peru and those who didn’t play, put some in the team and you won’t be too far wrong.”

So how much it will tell us about both sides respective World Cup chances is debatable but England will no doubt want to build on their 3-0 defeat of Peru at Wembley and maintain some momentum.

Even allowing for the uncertainty of the team formation England at around evens doesn’t look the worse price ever

RECOMMENDED BET (scale of 1-10 points)

10 points win ENGLAND at around evens with Star Sports

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