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NO CRICKET SCORE FOR ENGLAND
England seem to have the gentlest of tasks as they begin their bid to reach Euro 2008 and it's no surprise to see general quotes of 1/100 about Steve McClaren's men beating Andorra.
So what do we know about the visitors?
Andorra lost every game in qualification for Euro 2000, World Cup 2002 and Euro 2004.
But in October 2004 they made the big breakthrough by beating a Macedonian side which had held Holland to a draw four days earlier.
Goalless draws away to Macedonia (who England play on Wednesday) and at home against Finland gave them five points and signalled a vast improvement on those three earlier campaigns.
Nevertheless, keeping the score down will be their chief goal against England but they aren't helped by the fact that that their two best players won't be playing.
Marc Bernaus won't be released by his club, while Ildefons Lima has been banned for spitting.
However, against a motivated side, England may face a tougher task than they did in the first half of the friendly against Greece when the Euro 2004 winners were feeble.
But it's still really a question of how many so it's worth checking out how heavy the defeats are when Andorra go on the road.
Since 2004 against the more established nations:
France 4 Andorra 0
Spain 4 Andorra 0
Czech Republic 8 Andorra 1
Holland 4 Andorra 0
Aside from the thrashing agains the Czechs, Andorra haven't been embarrassed and, given the other three results, the 4-0 scoreline seems the obvious starting point when trying to guage how many England might win by.
That is very specific of course so it does make sense to go a goal either way.
Looking at past results shows that Andorra have conceded over four goals just twice in their last 30 internationals and given that there's no Wayne Rooney or Michael Owen, I'll veer towards 3-0 as the back-up score.
The 3-0 scoreline pays 6/1.
Predictably, all the England strikers - Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Andy Johnson and Darren Bent - are odds-on to score while you have to search hard for an odds-against quote about Frank Lampard.
It means we'll just stick to our two correct score bets.
Mention the Faroe Islands to a Scotland fan and they may start scratching behind their ear and be anxious to change the subject.
That's due to the 2002 meeting between the pair when the Faroes took a 2-0 lead before Scotland spared only some of their blushes by scrambling a 2-2 draw.
However, things should be very different this time.
For starters, Celtic Park will be a stark contrast to the tiny stadium in Toftir.
And, more importantly, Walter Smith has got Scotland playing in a way which suggests some of the dark days under Berti Vogts won't be repeated.
There's also a big contrast in the Scotland attack.
Believe it or not, Scott Dobie and Kevin Kyle were up front for the Scots in that infamous 2-2 draw. Not surprising it took a deflected Barry Lambert shot and a lob from Barry Ferguson to avoid a total disaster.
On Saturday, Smith can draw upon Celtic's Kenny Miller, a frequent scorer for Scotland, and Rangers' Kris Boyd, who has become something of a goal machine north of the border.
Boyd also scored twice on his international debut - a 5-1 win over Bulgaria in the Kirin Cup in Japan - so the boy simply has to be followed in this sort of form.
Given that Georgia thrashed the Faroes 6-0 last week, Boyd should be licking his lips.
Although 4/7 is the best you'll get about him finding the net, it still looks better than the 1/8 about a Scotland win.
The alternative is 3/1 to score first or hardcore Boyd backers can get 9/4 about him netting twice or 12s for a hat-trick.
As he scored the opener against Bulgaria on debut, we'll take that 3/1.
The Czech Republic are hot favourites to beat Wales in Teplice but John Toshack's men could be dangerous opponents.
Craig Bellamy and Robert Earnshaw have pace to burn up front while Ryan Giggs is playing out of his skin at the moment.
Bellamy has netted a couple of early goals for Liverpool while Earnshaw has bagged four in his last four games for Norwich and also scored twice in a Welsh shirt in the 2-1 friendly win over Trinidad & Tobago back in May.
The Czechs on the other hand are without Milan Baros, Vladimir Smicer and the retired Pavel Neved and their squad is further hit by suspensions.
They are also coming off the back of three straight defeats - back-to-back 2-0 reverses against Ghana and Italy in the World Cup which sent them crashing out in the group stage and a 3-1 home loss to Serbia a couple of weeks ago.
There is a real feeling in the Wales camp that they're playing the Czechs at just the right time and at 8/1 we'll take a chance on a famous Welsh win.
In the last year, Northern Ireland have won three, drawn one and lost one of their five internationals at Belfast and the wins over England, Azerbaijan and Estonia suggest they have the beating of Iceland.
In that same time frame, Iceland have lost five out of six, conceding 14 goals.
On the plus side, they snapped their losing sequence with a 0-0 draw against Spain in Reykjavik but they still go into the game as underdogs.
Northern Ireland beat Iceland 3-0 the last time the pair met in Belfast in 2002 and the hosts are 5/4 to triumph again.
Having beaten Estonia and Finland in recent times - teams who can be put on a par with Iceland - Lawrie Sanchez's men look worth supporting.
The Republic of Ireland start their campaign with a daunting clash with Germany in Stuttgart.
The Germans could have been forgiven for some post-World Cup blues, especially with the inspirational Jurgen Klinsmann calling it quits. But new coach Joachim Loew made an excellent start to his tenure by guiding the side to a 3-0 win over Sweden.
Germany have real injury problems at the back for Saturday's game so that just casts a little bit of doubt over taking the home win at a general 2/5.
But, as we saw in the World Cup, they look great going forward and Golden Boot winner Miroslav Klose continued his hotstreak with two goals in that 3-0 friendly win over the Swedes.
Klose is 11/10 at Stan James to find the net and that makes plenty of appeal against an Irish outfit who were hammered 4-0 at home by Holland last time out.
By Bettingzone.co.uk
Used with permission.
ENGLAND v ANDORRA & MACEDONIA MATCH PROGRAMME INDEX
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