By Ben LinfootIf you cast your mind back to February 6 2008 you might remember that England beat Switzerland 2-1 at Wembley in Fabio Capello's first game in charge.
The Italian will be hoping for a repeat result on Tuesday night but since then Ottmar Hitzfeld has taken over the Swiss side and he has made them an incredibly hard team to beat. Their last seven results have been 0-1, 1-1, 1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 1-0 and 0-0 and that third scoreline was the famous 1-0 win over Spain at the World Cup in South Africa.
Of course, the Spaniards went on to lift the trophy so Switzerland are clearly no mugs and it is somewhat surprising to see them chalked up at 10/3 with Bet365. England, I'm sure you all know, come into this on the back of wins over Hungary and Bulgaria at Wembley, the latter a 4-0 thumping in the first Euro 2012 qualifier on Friday.
So for England and Capello it looks like it's business as usual as far as qualifying for major tournaments are concerned. Because for all that they were bitterly disappointing at the main event in South Africa, the process of getting there was mightily easy.
Nine wins out of 10 ensured a group win, the only loss coming in the Ukraine when they were already guaranteed qualification. When you consider that record, perhaps the shade of odds-on about the Three Lions appeals.
But it's never that simple with England and injuries to John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Dawson means they are depleted at the back.
They coped without Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch in the goal-getting department against Bulgaria thanks to Jermain Defoe's hat-trick but Wayne Rooney was superb without scoring and you do wonder how much Sunday's allegations in the papers will affect him - if indeed he even plays.
There's a huge question mark there now and I do think that all things considered England will be happy to get through this game with a point.
A draw at home against England would also be an acceptable start for Switzerland and the stalemate is a major player at an attractive 5/2 with Bet365.
However, we'll go a step further and suggest having a play on no goalscorer with Bet365 who dangle 8/1.
This looks a more-than-fair price considering England's talisman might not be fully focused on the task in hand and Switzerland are a tough team to break down in any case.
Under 2.5 goals looks a solid shout but the price on that one is a prohibitive 1.675 so we'll happily chance there being no goals at all given the circumstances.
MORE HERE
The Italian will be hoping for a repeat result on Tuesday night but since then Ottmar Hitzfeld has taken over the Swiss side and he has made them an incredibly hard team to beat. Their last seven results have been 0-1, 1-1, 1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 1-0 and 0-0 and that third scoreline was the famous 1-0 win over Spain at the World Cup in South Africa.
Of course, the Spaniards went on to lift the trophy so Switzerland are clearly no mugs and it is somewhat surprising to see them chalked up at 10/3 with Bet365. England, I'm sure you all know, come into this on the back of wins over Hungary and Bulgaria at Wembley, the latter a 4-0 thumping in the first Euro 2012 qualifier on Friday.
So for England and Capello it looks like it's business as usual as far as qualifying for major tournaments are concerned. Because for all that they were bitterly disappointing at the main event in South Africa, the process of getting there was mightily easy.
Nine wins out of 10 ensured a group win, the only loss coming in the Ukraine when they were already guaranteed qualification. When you consider that record, perhaps the shade of odds-on about the Three Lions appeals.
But it's never that simple with England and injuries to John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Dawson means they are depleted at the back.
They coped without Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch in the goal-getting department against Bulgaria thanks to Jermain Defoe's hat-trick but Wayne Rooney was superb without scoring and you do wonder how much Sunday's allegations in the papers will affect him - if indeed he even plays.
There's a huge question mark there now and I do think that all things considered England will be happy to get through this game with a point.
A draw at home against England would also be an acceptable start for Switzerland and the stalemate is a major player at an attractive 5/2 with Bet365.
However, we'll go a step further and suggest having a play on no goalscorer with Bet365 who dangle 8/1.
This looks a more-than-fair price considering England's talisman might not be fully focused on the task in hand and Switzerland are a tough team to break down in any case.
Under 2.5 goals looks a solid shout but the price on that one is a prohibitive 1.675 so we'll happily chance there being no goals at all given the circumstances.
MORE HERE
