England U19 vs Japan U19 Betting Tips

Aidy Boothroyd’s side have been enjoying a strong time of it. They finished ahead of Italy to win the European Under 19 Championship qualifying group last month and will now progress into the elite qualifying stage.

Last week they were involved in an entertaining game away to the Netherlands. 2-0 down, the Young Lions fought back well with a late comeback to seal a 2-2 draw. Ryan Ledson, who captained the Under 17 side to glory in Malta in 2014 netted the first while substitute Tammy Abraham levelled things up with 2 minutes to go.

Perhaps it is too early to start talking about this as being a golden generation of English footballers but this squad is largely made up of players who were crowned European Champions at Under 17 level and they should have too much for Japan here.

England U19 have only lost 1 of their last 12 games, winning 8 of them. Japan have also won 10 of their last 12 but they haven’t faced a non Asian side during that period and they may find England to be a step up in class here although they are to some extent an unknown quantity, purely because they rarely face strong teams.

There have been over 2.5 goals in 9 of those 12 games involving Japan and over 2.5 goals in 7 of England’s last 12 and although the quality of the opposition has been mixed, both sides have displayed a generally attacking mentality and an eye for a goal. With nothing really at stake here, both sides will surely come to play football and we should see over 2.5 goals again and you can back that to be the case at 31/40.

England’s greater experience of playing genuinely competitive matches should stand them in good stead though and playing in Europe is a new experience for many of these Japanese players so a home win is likely and a 3-1 scoreline looks good value at 12/1.