Poland v England Prediction: Going back in on Maguire

Live on ITV, Poland host England in the World Cup qualifiers this Wednesday in Warsaw at 7.45pm. The visitors continued their perfect qualifying campaign as they dispatched Andorra 4-0 at Wembley this past Sunday. England have a 100% winning record as they have 15 points from five qualifying games scoring 17 goals and conceding just once. The one goal they conceded was against a Poland side who were without their main man Robert Lewandowski in a 2-1 win for Gareth Southgate’s men. Lewandowski has scored in both qualifiers for Poland during this international break and will be looking to get on the scoresheet again against the side with the best defensive record in the group.

After a disappointing European Championship campaign, Poland are now looking to cement the second qualification spot in this group. They beat San Marino and Albania 7-1 and 4-1 respectively in the past week and with Albania playing San Marino this week, Poland know a positive result against the high flying England side could be crucial in their bid to qualify for next year’s main event. The visitors come to Warsaw full of confidence and could almost confirm their automatic qualification with a win. A tough but exciting encounter is on the cards and as usual I have my 3 best bets highlighted in the preview below:

Team News:

Poland: Krzysztof Piatek, Dawid Kownacki, Sebastian Szymanski, Kacper Kozlowski and Mateusz Klich are out for Poland.

England: Calvert lewin is injured while Tyrone Mings and Jadon Sancho are doubtful.

Poland possible starting lineup:
Szczesny; Dawidowicz, Glik, Bednarek; Jozwiak, Krychowiak, Moder, Linetty, Rybus; Buksa, Lewandowski

England possible starting lineup:
Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw; Rice, Phillips; Sterling, Mount, Grealish; Kane

• Both teams to receive a card in the match - YES
• Over 0 cards in the 2nd half for Poland

England have received at least one card in four of their five World Cup qualifying games. Poland have received a card in three of their five World Cup qualifying games. However, this time around the pressure is on Poland to get a result so they will be expected to attack. This could open up spaces for England to counter specially in the second half if Poland are not leading.

I would expect Poland to pick up a card on the counter against England’s highly skilful players just like they did in their last meeting against them at Wembley in March. Combining a card for each side and a Poland card in the second half gives us a solid Bet Builder @ 9/10 and I am happy to make this our 1pt bet.

We backed Harry Maguire to get a headed shot on target at 11/2 in their game against Hungary and he scored a fantastic header to win us our bet at a lovely price. There is no need to fix something that is not broken and so we will backing this bet again. The price we are getting this time is 9/2 so obviously the bookies have adjusted slightly but I still feel it is worth getting on with a small 0.5pt stake as he is a massive threat from set pieces and even scored against Poland when they last met at Wembley.

For the longshot, Lewandowski is Poland’s main man and in form with three goals in his last two qualifiers. Harry Kane is expected to lead the line for England and he will get plenty of chances to get on the scoresheet with so much quality around him. Kamil Glik is always susceptible to picking up a yellow card on the counter and Kalvin Phillips was the player averaging the most fouls per game for England at the Euros. Combining these four selections gives us a juicy longshot at a huge price and we will try our luck with a very small 0.25pt stake.