Moldova v England

England begin their World Cup qualifying campaign with a dearth of attacking options and will be glad to simply take three points and move on in Moldova. They are a best price 11/2 (Ladbrokes) to win 1-0, and it would be somewhat surprising if it proved anymore convincing than that.

Roy Hodgson heads to the Zimbru Stadium without Wayne Rooney and Andy Carroll so Jermain Defoe will shoulder a lot of the attacking burden with the inexperienced Daniel Sturridge and Danny Wellbeck the only other recognised strikers.

Moldova shouldn’t be dismissed too lightly. A pair of 1-0 defeats to Netherlands in Euro 2012 qualifying suggests that the floodgates may not open. They also only lost by the odd goal away to Sweden and Hungary. Goalscoring is their main problem; something they haven’t done since October 2011.