England v Croatia: Ben White 5/4 to start opening game

England v Croatia: Ben White 5/4 to start opening game

Brighton defender is in contention to start in England's Euro 2020 opener after he got the squad nod over James Ward-Prowse and Jesse Lingard, says Max Liu...

Ben White is 5/4 to start for England against Croatia on Sunday after he was called up by Gareth Southgate to replace the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Youth and form have been bywords of Southgate's tenure as England manager, in White, he's gone for a 23-year-old who's enjoyed an excellent season for Brighton and only made his international debut against Austria last week.

With the injured Harry Maguire 21/10 to make it for Croatia, and Tyrone Mings and Conor Coady unconvincing in friendlies, White could be in line to start at Wembley in England's Euro 2020 opener.

Southgate's men were far from their best in their 1-0 win against Romania and the loss of Maguire is a blow. With the Chelsea and Manchester City contingent bolstering the manager's options for this Sunday, however, bettors think England can raise their game for the competition. They're 1.77 to start with a win over Croatia.

City's John Stones and Kyle Walker are both heavy odds-on to start.

Chelsea's Ben Chilwell will also be available but he's drifted to 15/8 with Luke Shaw 4/11 for the left-back berth.

Grealish presses case with another strong display

Once again Jack Grealish was involved in almost everything good that England did in the final third of the field.

He looks set to play an important part at Euro 2020 but whether that means he'll be in the starting 11 against Croatia is uncertain. The Aston Villa man is 5/4 to start with Mason Mount 1/25 in the midfielder betting. Southgate could, however, play either of them in a three-man attack along side Harry Kane and one other.

Declan Rice is 1/25 to start as England's defensive midfielder against Croatia.

Up front Phil Foden is 1/12 with his City team-mate Raheem Sterling 4/5.

Marcus Rashford, who captained England and scored the only goal yesterday, is 5/6.