Sports Blog 17/11/2015: International Friendly Preview – England vs France, Tuesday 16th November 2015

Football games are constantly labelled as important, for one reason or another; however Tuesday’s friendly between England and France carries a weight that no event, sporting or otherwise, should ever have to endure.

The tragedies in Paris on Friday, including the Stade de France as a target whilst the home nation hosted Germany in a friendly, meant many questioned whether Tuesday's match at Wembley should go ahead. Yet not only does it go ahead, it goes ahead as an opportunity for the sport to act as a moment of solidarity and temporary catharsis for all those involved.

France won that game on Friday night, defeating the world champions 2-0 following goals from Olivier Giroud (at a Super Mega PGM spread of 18-22 ahead of Tuesday’s game in London) and Andre-Pierre Gignac. It is a good result for France, one that suggests despite (or perhaps because of) not having gone through the Euro qualification process they remain able to play with the big boys.



England’s Friday friendly, on the other hand, wasn’t so promising. Going into match aiming to extend their unbeaten run to 16 games, Roy Hodgson’s side received a few home truths in Alicante. Losing 2-0 to the consecutive European champions isn’t a disaster by any means; it does, however, arguably reveal England’s 10 wins in 10 qualifying campaign to be the fairly flattering statistic many had assumed. It was the first serious test of their ability since March’s friendly against Italy, and though they weren’t completely blown away by Vincent del Bosque’s team, they offered little to counter the sporadic magic shown by the likes of Andres Iniesta and Santi Cazorla.

Looking to Tuesday’s game and, given that Jaime Vardy will be absent once again, Harry Kane will be hoping he can improve on a decent showing against Spain with a few goals at Wembley. The Tottenham striker goes into the friendly at 7/1 to score first with a Super Mega PGM spread of 15-19.

Given the charged and heavy atmosphere that is almost certain to hang over Tuesday’s friendly, it is understandable that our Spreadex traders have found the game too difficult to call, offering a choice England/France Goal Supremacy spread of -0.1-0.1 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.1-2.35.