Sports Blog 13/11/2015: Friendly Preview – Spain vs England, Friday 12th November 2015

With neither side facing the toughest group during qualifying Spain and England will be looking to test each other’s mettle when they meet in Alicante at 7.45pm on ITV.

Whilst arguably the main attraction of this friendly, a run-out for the in-form (and with 12 goals in 12 Premier League games that is somewhat of an understatement) Jamie Vardy, has been nixed due to a minor groin injury for the Leicester forward there is still plenty of intrigue for England in tonight’s game.

Most prominent is the benching of the decidedly out-of-form Wayne Rooney meaning that, combined with Vardy’s absence, Harry Kane has the perfect stage to shine. Kane has gotten over his start of season stutter, which saw him fail to score in Tottenham’s first 8 games in all competitions, nabbing 7 in his last 9. Add onto that 3 goals in his 6 England appearances and Kane sits at 8/1 fixed odds to score first with a healthy Super Mega PGM spread of 13-17 thrown in for good measure.



This friendly perhaps carries more weight than most; despite winning 10 from 10 in qualifying, England were hardly stretched against the likes of Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and San Marino. Spain provide a much trickier prospect, and a chance for England to assert themselves among the world’s elite, even if a win over the current, and consecutive, European champions doesn’t carry as much clout as it once did.

Spain topped their own group with 9 wins and 1 loss, leaving them with the 3rd best qualifying record behind England and, interestingly, Austria. Granted, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Luxembourg and Macedonia hardly comprise a radically tougher set of opponents than England’s lot, but it does suggest a side that is recovering (like England) from an ignoble World Cup exit. Not to say the recovery is anywhere near complete; the Spanish have lost 3 of their last 4 friendlies to France, Germany and the Netherlands respectively (the win came against Costa Rica), and (once again like England) still have a lot to prove on the world stage.

One of the biggest pluses for Spain has been the emergence of Paco Alcacer as a potent force going forwards. The 22 year old striker, who is in the middle of an impressive season for Valencia in La Liga, has scored 6 goals in his 10 games since making his debut as a substitute in Spain’s aforementioned friendly loss to France. And with 5 of those coming in qualifying, Alcacer ended up as Spain’s top scorer, outshining more established names like Diego Costa and David Silva, leaving him as favourite to score first at 4/1 on Friday, alongside the strongest Super Mega PGM spread at 23-28.

Despite England’s current 15 game unbeaten run (with 12 wins and 3 draws) Spain are arguably the first difficult side Roy Hodgson’s men have faced since March’s friendly against Italy (and before then you have to go back to the World Cup defeat to Uruguay). Our Spreadex traders, then, think it may be too soon for them to make the step up to beating Europe’s top tier, offering a Spain/England Goal Supremacy spread of 0.6-0.8 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.3-2.5.