England v Czech Republic
Euro 2020 Qualifiers – 7.45 pm
ITV
England take their first step on the road to Euro 2020 with a home fixture against the Czech Republic on Friday. This is action from Group A in qualifying. It really is expected that these two will be finding their way to settling the top two places. England are front-runners to top Group A and a win on Friday will set them off nicely in the right direction.
Group A also contains Bulgaria, Montenegro and Kosovo so it should be nothing that England can’t handle. They have only lost one of their last 18 home games and during Euro 2016 and World Cup 2018 qualifications, the Three Lions recorded perfect home records. They are long odds-on favourites to win this opener, so much so that leading bookmakers have them as short as 8/11 to win to nil.
That could easily feature as one of the best bets of the day for keen punters eyeing up a home win. England have only conceded the two goals in their last ten qualification matches at Wembley. With Gareth Southgate’s men having reached the World Cup 2018 semi-finals and then the finals of the Nations League, there’s plenty of optimism fuelling the charge of the Three Lions at the moment.
Leicester v Northampton
Premiership Rugby – 7.45 pm
BT Sport
It is back to Premiership rugby action on Friday night with Leicester hosting Northampton in a big derby match. The Leicester Tigers are on a bit of a roll on home soil. Now that the Six Nations has ended too, they will be back to a full complement of players. To help their cause they get five England internationals back including Manu Tuilagi and Jonny May.
The Tigers are on a three-match winning streak at home in the Premiership. Overall, home and away, they have only won one of their last four played. But it is that home form which sees them go as 8/13 favourites with top bookmakers to pick up the win against the Saints. When the two met at Twickenham back in October it was the Tigers who came out on top. Another win for the Tigers could pull them ahead of the Saints in the standings and further distance themselves from the bottom two.
Northampton have won two of their last three in the top flight against Leicester. They will be heading to Welford Road trying to avoid three straight defeats in current league form. Hampering the Saints is their away form. They haven’t won an away game in the 2019 calendar year in any tournament. The Saints though had a huge fillip of confidence last weekend though. They beat Saracens in the Premiership Rugby Cup Final, without giving up a try. Saints are 11/8 underdogs to topple the Tigers.
Moldova v France
Euro 2020 Qualifiers – 7.45 pm
Sky Sports
Reigning World Champions France make a trip to Moldova to start their Euro 2020 Qualification campaign. The French are, not too surprisingly, long odds-on favourites to get the win. They are long 2/5 odds to win the game to nil as well with top bookmakers. Les Bleus have suffered only one defeat in their last seventeen international fixtures. That loss happened in the Nations League back in November, when they went down 2-0 in Amsterdam against the Netherlands.
It means that France have actually only gone W1 D2 L1 in their last four away fixtures (not counting World Cup 2018 fixtures). So will they have a tricky night out in Moldova? This will be the first international match between the two nations, so France are stepping into a bit of unknown territory. It’s easy to let complacency get the better of you sometimes too. Moldova have only lost one of their last six games (W2 D3) and have conceded just two goals in that sequence. Will they be able to frustrate the World Champions?
