The Goalscorer Gamble: Welbeck to get back among the England goals

 

It's another round of World Cup qualifying games and Dan Fitch is predicting that Danny Welbeck will get his chance to score for England against Montenegro.

 

England have a less star-studded team these days and in many ways it's for the better. While Sven-Goran Eriksson would try to shoehorn Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard,  David Beckham and Paul Scholes into the same midfield rather than simply dropping one or two of them, Roy Hodgson can pick a team based on the opposition.

 

So against San Marino, professional flat-track bully Jermain Defoe was the perfect choice to play with Wayne Rooney. Yet despite the fact that Defoe scored twice on  Friday, I'd be surprised if the Spurs striker keeps his place in the team.

 

Danny Welbeck started for England in their 2-1 victory over Brazil back in February and I'd expect him to come back into the team for this tricky away tie. Welbeck has  scored five goals in 15 games for his country and looks a decent bet at 3.4 to score at any time.

 

Spain have so many good players that they simply have no choice but to rotate their personnel. Pedro was dropped to the bench for Spain disappointing 1-1 draw with  Finland, despite having been in great goalscoring form for the World and European champions.

 

I tipped him to score the last goal against Finland, but he's another player that I think will be back in the starting XI when Spain travel to play France. Prior to  the Finland game Pedro had scored nine goals in his previous five games for Spain, so let's go with him at 9.0 to score the first goal, in what should be a tight game.

 

Another player in a hot spell of goalscoring form for his country right now is Barcelona's Lionel Messi. Given the regularity that Messi finds the net at club level,  this might seem like a redundant comment, but the world's best player has found it tougher to score at international level until recently.

 

Messi had a record of 19 goals in 67 games going into 2012, when he enjoyed by far his most prolific year for Argentina, scoring 12 in 9 appearances. That and the two  fixtures this year have brought Messi up to 32 goals in 78 games.

 

He scored the last of these goals against Venezuela on Friday and with the in-form Gonzalo Higuain suspended, the responsibility to score against Bolivia will largely  rest on his shoulders. We'll back Messi at odds of 1.94 to overcome the altitude problems and add to his tally.

 

Another player who must step up and assume the responsibility for his suspended strike partner is Israel's Eden Ben Besat, when he comes up against Northern Ireland.

 

The Irish have kept things tight of late, conceding only three goals in their last four games. However, prior to this recent run they had conceded 23 goals in seven  games.

 

I fancy Israel to pose the home defence some problems. They scored three in their draw with Portugal last week and have hit 15 goals in their last five outings.

 

The main goal threats for Israel are Tomer Hemed and Ben Besat. The Mallorca striker Hemed is the more established player with 14 caps and nine goals, but Besat has  hit the ground running since making his debut and notched four goals in six games.

 

Hemed is suspended for this one, meaning that the pressure is on Besat to deliver. Let's take a punt on him to score the last goal at 7.2.

 

Finally we look at Germany's match against Kazakhstan. The Germans beat Kazakhstan 3-0 on Friday and look set to score more goals at home.

 

I tipped Mesut Ozil to score last week. He failed to, but I'm going to have another try on him at 2.2. He's scored five goals during the qualification stages so far and as Germany's current penalty taker, he should really be a shorter price than he is.

 

Recommended Bets

Best Bet: Back Welbeck to score at 3.4

Back Pedro to score first at 9.0

Back Messi to score at 1.94

Back Ben Besat to score last at 7.2

Back Ozil to score at 2.2

 

Bet HERE

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