England to grind out victory

[sake]

Chris Hammer previews England's Euro 2016 qualifier against Slovenia and expects a hard-fought victory for the Three Lions.

England have already taken giant strides towards qualification for Euro 2016 after three successive wins and another expected victory against Slovenia this Saturday will further underline their hot favouritism to top Group E.

Much of the build-up has been overshadowed by the findings of the World Cup bidding report which was critical of the Football Association's conduct during the process - but Roy Hodgson will no doubt have his players fully focused on matters at Wembley this weekend.

The Three Lions, who are 1/100 to reach the finals in France and no bigger than 1/8 to finish top of the standings, opened their campaign with an impressive 2-0 win in Switzerland before a routine 5-0 triumph over San Marino was followed by a laboured 1-0 away victory against Estonia.

That last result was greeted across the board with muted celebrations - if you could even call them that such was the general dissatisfaction with the performance - and the home fans will be hoping for much more excitement when they entertain Slovenia.

However, 'excitement' and 'entertain' aren't two words you'd think of at all to describe many - if any - England matches in recent times and you're lucky if you inch towards the edge of your seat, let alone leaping off it.
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Ignoring the 17 goals scored over three games against San Marino and Moldova since the start of 2013, England have found the net 27 times in their last 20 while those matches have yielded 44 goals in total.

Wayne Rooney is technically 'in form' for his national side as he prepares to win his 100th cap having struck in four of the last six, including one during the World Cup finals defeat to Uruguay and needs just seven more to replace Sir Bobby Charlton as England's all-time leading scorer, although his form domestically this season isn't much to shout about.

Roy Hodgson has lost Michael Carrick and Andros Townsend to injury this week but while these two absentees shouldn't jeopardise the chances of another three points - the question for me is just how narrow the margin of victory will be.

We've got to remember that Slovenia, who will certainly feel they can take one of the two automatic spots in this group given the standard of opposition, aren't a particularly easy side to break down and proved as much during the qualification process for the World Cup even though their quest ultimately ended in failure.

In finishing third in their group behind Switzerland and Iceland, Slovenia did lose five of their 10 games but only conceded 11 goals and were only beaten by two or more just once - a 2-0 home defeat to the table-topping Swiss.

After a disappointing 1-0 loss away to an Estonia side who gave England a run for their money, Slovenia bounced back by gaining a measure of revenge on Switzerland with a 1-0 home triumph before negotiating the tricky trip to Lithuania with a 2-0 victory - so they now sit second in the standings heading into this Wembley showdown.

It's perhaps also worth mentioning that this calendar year, Slovenia suffered 2-0 away defeats to Argentina and Uruguary in the build-up to the World Cup which again underlines they are no pushovers against high quality opposition.
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England will have to look out for Kevin Kampl's speed and creativity if he's fit enough to play as well as the goal instinct of Milivoje Novakovic, who has netted all three of Slovenia's goals in the qualifiers so far.

Overall, I think it's fair to say signs are pointing towards a hard-fought victory in England's favour and with all this in mind I'm going to opt for Sky Bet's 11/4 about England winning by two goals. If you fancy taking a punt on the 2-0 scoreline then take 7/2 but I just feel Slovenia might just offer enough in attack to scupper that bet.