England vs Kosovo Predictions

It’s been plain sailing in qualifying for England, who’ve won three out of three and thus sit at the top of Group A. Gareth Southgate’s men will be hoping to make it four wins from four when taking on Kosovo, who’re currently on an impressive unbeaten run, at St. Mary’s on Tuesday evening.

England continued to make light work of racking up the qualifying wins on Saturday, as they brushed aside a limited Bulgarian side, winning by four goals to nil. We didn’t really learn anything new on that occasion; against inferior opposition, the Three Lions can create plenty of scoring opportunities, while with forwards like Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling in their forward line, getting the ball in the back of the net isn’t a problem.

Gareth Southgate’s men have now scored an impressive 14 goals in three qualifying matches, scoring at least four in each of those three. They’ve conceded just one goal during that time, conceding in none of their two home games.

England aren’t the only ones who’re enjoying a pleasing campaign in Group A, as the Kosovans continued to show people what they’re capable of on Saturday afternoon. Despite going a goal down early on, Bernard Challandes’ men had too much in the tank for Czech Republic, as they emerged with a 2-1 win.

Kosovo, who’re currently on a longer unbeaten run that any other side in Europe, are yet to taste defeat in Group A and it’s not tough to see why. Challandes’ side have developed a habit of creating more than they give away, while they’ve crucially prevented teams from building up a head of steam. Kosovo head into Tuesday’s clash at St. Mary’s having conceded in each of their four games, but they’ve only conceded more than once in one of those four, while an average of 0.73 expected goals against tell us that they’ve not exactly been easy to create against. The Kosovans have also bettered their opponents in terms of expected goals and shots on target in three out four in Group A.

In the betting, ‘Both Teams to Score’ looks overpriced. At the end of the day, this is where Kosovo’s unbeaten run is likely to end, but they do appear to have been ever so slightly disrespected in the market. Despite generally defending well, they are without a clean sheet so keeping out the likes of Kane and Sterling is likely to prove beyond the visitors. However, having scored in 100% of their Group A matches and having created 1.9 expected goals for when last on the road, the visitors are fancied to make a greater offensive impact on the game than the current prices suggest.