In their final pre-World Cup friendly, will England hint a potential Russian revolution when they host Costa Rica, at 8pm on ITV1?

Saturday’s visit from Nigeria saw England pick up a 2-1 win, extending their unbeaten streak to 9 games. The 1st half saw Gareth Southgate’s side dominate, with a 7th minute header from the returning Gary Cahill and a pre-break strike from great English hope Harry Kane leaving the hosts with a 2-0 lead.



The Super Eagles pulled one back within 2 minutes of the 2nd half thanks to Alex Iwobi, but couldn’t really build on this moment of England vulnerability. All in all it was decent from the hosts, if not exactly the kind of performance to ignite hopes of a dark horse march to July’s denouement in Moscow.

Costa Rica are ostensibly a step up in terms of competition, given the fact that, unlike Nigeria, they’re actually travelling to Russia. And remember, last World Cup Los Ticos did far better than their Thursday hosts, beating Uruguay and Italy, and drawing against England to top Group D, before overcoming Greece in the last-16 and narrowly losing to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. They’re also in a bit of Brit-beating form. In 2018 a loss in Tunisia was sandwiched in the middle of wins over Scotland and Northern Island, preparation of sorts for their trip to Elland Road.



In terms of team news, Stoke’s Jack Butland is taking over goalkeeping duties from Everton’s Jordan Pickford as Southgate tries to ascertain his first choice pick for the opening game against Tunisia, while Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold will be given his debut cap.

There are questions over whether Raheem Sterling will start after picking up a yellow card against Nigeria, but the Man City forward still sits at a solid Super Mega PGM spread of 21-26, trailing Marcus Rashford at 25-30 and Jamie Vardy at 31-37. Captain Harry Kane, of course, leads with a spread of 42-49, and is chasing his 7th goal in 6 games with the armband on. As for Costa Rica, Arsenal youngster Joel Campbell is the one to watch at a Super Mega PGM of 8-11, a spread he shares with Marco Urena.

In theory Thursday’s game should give Southgate’s side a bit of momentum heading into their curtain raiser in Volgograd, with Spreadex offering an England/Costa Rica Goal Supremacy spread of 1.2-1.4 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.45-2.65.