Bet on Thomas Tuchel’s underperforming England to beat Serbia in World Cup qualifier | Football

It’s 18 games since England started their wild run to the Euro 2024 final in Berlin with a largely forgettable 1-0 win against Serbia and, in all honesty, not much has changed.

The Three Lions were pretty unconvincing at the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen with Jude Bellingham breaking the deadlock in the 13th minute and it could be another unexciting affair when the two sides meet in Belgrade.

After the last meeting, England went on to reach the knockout stages following 1-1 and 0-0 draws with Denmark and Slovakia and then conceded in every match on the way to the final which they lost 2-1 to Spain.

However, in the 11 internationals since then the Three Lions have kept eight clean sheets, only conceding in the defeats to Greece and Senegal which bookended a 3-1 victory against Finland in Helsinki and they have scored in every one of those victories since then.

Dating back to the win against Serbia, Harry Kane unsurprisingly leads the scoring charts with nine with Bellingham having tallied three and Declan Rice scoring two, including the clincher in Saturday’s drab 2-0 World Cup qualifying success against Andorra.

The Three Lions first got on the scoresheet at Villa Park thanks to an own goal, the second they have benefitted from in our sample size, matching the brace credited to Ollie Watkins and Jack Grealish in that stretch.

Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones, Anthony Gordon, Conor Gallagher, Jarrod Bowen, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Reece James and Eberechi Eze are the others to have scored but few are regular goal-getters, leaving a huge reliance on Kane to deliver the goods. The Bayern Munich striker has his critics but it is evident that England must still play to his strengths or suffer the consequences.

England are also generally slow starters, with just nine of those goals being scored in the first half of matches but they can finish strongly with 13 of the 21 second-half strikes being tucked away in the final 15 minutes.

They did not look like breaking down Andorra until Christian Garcia headed Noni Madueke’s cross into his own net in the 25th minute on Saturday and a physically strong Serbia should make life tough for Thomas Tuchel’s side in Belgrade.

Serbia v England odds

The Three Lions should gain three points to maintain their 100 per cent start to Group K at 4/5 with Ladbrokes, Coral, bet365 plus many more and a draw at half-time and England to be ahead at the final whistle is 15/4 with William Hill, StarSports and Bresbet.

It makes sense to back Kane to bag the first goal at 17/4 with Betway and he’s 17/10 to do so at any time with BetMGM while the same firm offer a whopping 10/1 that Rice also ticks the scoreboard over. 

A 2-0 England triumph is 7/1 with bet365, Betfred, Sporting Index and SpreadEx while under 2.5 goals is 8/11 with Ladbrokes and Coral.

Tennis odds

Will Novak Djokovic ever register a record 25th grand-slam victory? His last remaining chance to break the tie he shares with Margaret Court would appear to be the Australian Open in Melbourne in January but it is tough to see the 38-year-old Serbian breaking the vice-like grip Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have on the sport and winning the trophy in Melbourne for an 11th time.

Djokovic is the 8/1 third favourite with bet365 to create history but Sinner is the 6/4 favourite with Sky Bet while Alcaraz is the early value at 5/2 with 888Sport. The pair have contested the last three grand slam finals in New York and at Wimbledon and the French Open in Paris.

They have each won three of the last six slams although Djokovic did win gold at the Parish Olympics on the Roland Garros clay last summer.

Aryna Sabalenka is the 5/2 favourite with Unibet to start 2026 by winning the women’s title at the Australian Open after taking the title in 2023 and 2024 before losing to Madison Keys in this year’s final.

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