English 
England’s last game could be a knockout
Gareth Southgate’s side can set the tone with a confident win against Iceland.
England are expected to tune up for next week’s European Championship with two straight wins as they host Iceland on Friday night after a 3-0 win over Bosnia. Against the islanders, who have slipped back into Europe’s lower-medium division, we believe they can still be knocked out even with a half-back starting line-up, although it remains to be seen who Gareth Southgate will back this time. But there are no plans for mercy…
Against the Bosnians, the manager fielded a mixed team, with Harry Kane and Jack Grealish only substitutes, and the Balkan side, considered favourites for the European Championship, failed to find the net for 60 minutes.
It’s hard to predict who the coach will vote for, but the provisional starting line-up now includes Bayern striker Bellingham, Foden and Saka, which would be close to the strongest possible squad.
As for Friday’s opponents, Iceland, the Scandinavians will first face England and then the Netherlands, which would be a miracle if they could score. Although Sigurdsson’s team beat Bosnia and Liechtenstein in the qualifiers, it doesn’t look good that the Slovaks beat them by 12 points and Luxembourg by 7. Norway’s Åge Hareide can’t seem to pull Iceland, who shone at the 2016 Euros, out of their slump. By the way, it’s worth remembering how badly the Icelandic team handled their opponents on Friday at the tournament 8 years ago…
The visitors will be missing a number of experienced players this time around, although it’s still not a youthful squad. In any case, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Birkir Bjarnason, Albert Gudmundsson and Alfred Finnbogason are not among the squad, but even with them there is little chance of a surprise.
Best free pick for England-Iceland
Our prediction is clear: with a starter like this, Southgate could quickly get to the bottom of the big questions. Kane’s side are unlikely to get more than 50-60 minutes in the last game, so the first half could be a massive win for England. Last time out for England, the Three Lions won both halves 2-0 and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar outcome.
