Montenegro vs England Predictions

Raheem Sterling fired in his first international hat-trick on Friday night as England put five past Czech Republic at Wembley, and things already look pretty ominous for their Group A rivals even at this early stage in the qualifying campaign. An away trip to Montenegro is up next for Gareth Southgate’s side on Monday evening and we expect the Three Lions to prevail fairly comfortably.

England kicked off their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign on Friday without a number of key players but that didn’t stop them from dishing out an absolute hiding to Czech Republic.

The Czech’s are clearly not the force of old, however their outstanding teams of the past would have struggled to keep tabs on Gareth Southgate’s energetic and youthful side at Wembley, which included Borussia Dortmund star Jadon Sancho who was handed his first start for the Three Lions.

Sancho was involved in a wonderful sweeping move which was finished off by Sterling to give England the lead midway through the first period, and their dominance was fully reflected in the scoreline on the stroke of half time as Harry Kane netted his 21^st international goal from the spot.

That second goal proved crucial as if afforded England the opportunity to really let loose in the second half and Sterling helped himself to two more goals to complete the hat-trick, before a calamitous error from Bristol City’s Tomas Kalas made it 5-0 to Southgate’s side.

In truth, it could have been ten for England on a near perfect evening – the only negative being an early injury to Spurs’ Eric Dier who will now miss this Monday’s contest in Montenegro.

Southgate will decide over the weekend whether to draft in back up from the U21 squad, although England should cope comfortably, with Ross Barkley likely to step in again.

England have drawn both previous visits to Podgorica City Stadium, which often provides a rather claustrophobic and intimidating atmosphere, but the bark from the Montenegro supporters is far more fierce than the bite of the team.

Montenegro kicked off their campaign with a fair 1-1 draw in Bulgaria on Friday, but recent form overall suggests that England, who haven’t lost an away qualifier of any kind since 2009, have little to fear.

Ljumbisa Tumbakovic’s side lost three of their six League C UEFA Nations League matches to finish 3^rd in their group, including home defeats, without scoring against Serbia (0-2) and Romania (0-1).

Indeed, Monday’s hosts have failed to strike in seven of their last 13 internationals, including four of their last six in Podgorica, so England shouldn’t face too much pressure in this department.

The Three Lions have themselves kept clean sheets in three of their last four games so the best betting angle this Monday is to back England to win this tie to nil.

Whilst England are in flying form in front of goal, Montenegro should provide sterner resistance than the Czech’s as they haven’t conceded more than two goals since November 2017, so with that in mind, we’re also predicting a 0-2 correct score for this Group A encounter.