England v Switzerland preview: Southgate’s stars looking to impress

With just 8 months to go until the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Gareth Southgate will be using England’s friendly international fixture against Switzerland to eye up talent ahead of the tournament.

We preview the game below and look at the latest betting odds.

Three debuts for the Three Lions

This fixture provides the England manager with the perfect opportunity to look at some of the fringe squad players ahead of the World Cup in Qatar. Crystal Palace duo Marc Guehi and Tyrick Mitchell along with Southampton defender Kyle Walker-Peters have earned their first senior call-ups following the withdrawals of Aaron Ramsdale, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Reece James and Tammy Abraham through injury.

In order to secure a win at Wembley, Southgate will need to balance out the inexperience of the debutants with some of the Three Lions favourites. Captain Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in consecutive England appearances in the November 2021 victories against Albania and San Marino. Kane needs just one more goal to be equal Bobby Charlton (49) as England’s second top scorer of all-time, with Wayne Rooney topping the list with 53 goals.

Backing England to win and Harry Kane to score the first goal looks to be good value at 19/5.

The Swiss to make things difficult?

Switzerland come into this game off the back of topping their World Cup qualifying pool, ahead of Italy, the reigning Euros champions, so this game is likely to be close and competitive. Murat Yakin’s team made it into the quarter finals of Euro 2020 for the first time in their history.

Both England and Switzerland have won three and drawn two of their last five games and are unbeaten since their defeats at the Euros last year. Southgate’s side’s 2021 stats are fairly impressive, with 52 goals scored and 14 clean sheets, so if they are to carry their form into 2022 the Swiss may find it hard to overcome the Three Lions.

The two sides have clashed 16 times, with England winning 11 of those games and Switzerland only walking away victorious once. England last hosted Switzerland at Wembley in 2015 when Rooney became England’s all-time top goal scorer. The last clash between these sides was in 2019 which resulted in a stalemate with England taking the win on penalties.

England will be expecting a much tougher test this weekend compared to their last game in November 2021 against San Marino which ended in a 10-0 thrashing, however the hosts are still the clear favourites to win at 4/6. Switzerland are underdogs at 4/1.

Check out all the latest football betting odds at William Hill