England v Hungary: Kane to come back with a bang at Wembley

England v Hungary: Kane to come back with a bang at Wembley

Paul Higham says Harry Kane will return to the England line-up with a bang as the Three Lions continue their qualifying dominance at Wembley.

England's main men to return at Wembley

It was an ultra professional display by England in Andorra on Saturday as Gareth Southgate got to look at some of his squad players and getting some solid game time into them.

It was also very nice of them to score five and grab us a winner from the preview for that game - so fingers crossed for us doubling up at Wembley!

The Three Lions are a proper side these days and being able to make wholesale changes is all part of that continued development, and now against Hungary Southgate can call upon a rested Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Declan Rice and Kyle Walker.

He's also got great options such as playing Phil Foden deeper and picking between the likes of Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho, Jack Grealish, Mason Mount and Jesse Lingard for probably just two places.

All this with a four point lead in the group means England are in rude health heading towards the World Cup next year.

England's main men to return at Wembley

Hungary had a brilliant tournament at Euro 2020 and came within a whisker of qualifying from the group of death containing France, Germany and Portugal.

It's not gone so well in World Cup qualifying though both on and off the pitch, as they've been punished for the racist behaviour of their home crowd while also probably seeing their qualfication hopes end in the last month.

That's because they've lost three of their last four games in the group, with one defeat to England and two surprising losses to Albania seeing them slip five points behind the Albanians and four points behind Poland.

Their record against England doesn't provide much hope either as Hungary haven't won in the last 14 meetings since a 2-1 success at the 1962 World Cup. They've lost nine of 10 away games in England, with that one coming in 1953.

 

England in dominant run in qualifying

You just can't back against England in qualifying these days, with just one defeat in their last 54 games, and currently riding a 21-game winning streak in home qualifiers - scoring 73 and conceding just seven since a draw With Ukraine in 2012.

That's why we see them as 1.17 favourites for another Wembley win with 28 being available for a huge upset Hungary win and 8.2 on the draw.

It was a tough game out in Budapest in the return fixture, with Hungary holding England until 55 minutes when Sterling broke the deadlock and the floodgates opened up later on.

A similar flow of the game would bring the half-time draw into play at 2.75 while Sterling is always a popular first goalscorer shout and he's 4.33 to open the scoring against at Wembley.

Hungary may well make it tough again, but they know they're all-but out of contention and much like in Budapest once one goal goes in then a few could follow. Backing the second half to have most goals at 2.0 plays into this narrative.

Kane to continue incredible scoring run

That strength in depth we talked about could not only see a few late goals but make sure we see a few goals - England to score three goals or more is another 2.0 shot on the exchange and can be backed with confidence.

One main reason for this confidence is Harry Kane and his incredible scoring run which has seen him score nine goals in 13 games for England in 2021 and on the verge of scoring 10 in a year for the second time.

Kane scores a goal every 118 minutes on average in competitive games, not including friendlies, so he's doing it when it matters and after sitting it out in Andorra he'll be raring to get back on the scoring train at Wembley.

That's the beauty with this England side - the likes of Kane and Sterling are still keen to prove themselves and are always hungry for goals. They'll keep on going as well so we're advising backing Kane to score twice at 3.0 to get a good run for your money.

Jack Grealish may well start after a late cameo in Andorra saw him score his first international goal. He got an assist in Budapest and he's worth taking to have an assist again at 2.4 as he already has five in the bag for England and if he starts he'll be heavily involved in what should be another regulation England win.