Barry - good each-way value.
BARRY CAN BITE BRAZIL
By Gareth Friel and Chris Hammer (NI)
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England will find out just how close they are to the world's top sides when they take on Brazil in Qatar on Saturday.
Fabio Capello's side will have their work cut out against the number one team in the FIFA world rankings as they are without Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, David James, Theo Walcott, Glen Johnson and Emile Heskey.
And Brazil's friendly record is pretty formidable recently. Since the 2006 World Cup they have won 14 of their 19 non-competitive games - and many of them have been on neutral soil so they won't find have any problem playing in Doha.
England have been very impressive under Capello, breezing through their World Cup qualification and have won six of their ten friendly games.
But it is noticeable that when they have taken a step up in quality to face the top sides they have struggled a bit.
Their two friendly defeats came against France and Spain while they were held by Holland and the Czech Republic, although they comfortably won 2-1 in Germany.
This is a difficult one to predict. How will England cope with the heat? How seriously will both sides take the game?
Brazil at 5/4 would hold plenty of appeal in ordinary circumstances but with the number of uncertainties involved, those odds look a bit skinny.
Instead it may be worth a speculative punt on Gareth Barry scoring the first goal.
The Man City midfielder is certain to play in the absence of Lampard and Gerrard and is likely to be first in line should England win a penalty.
He has been on target twice for City this season and with the formation deployed by Capello there is an onus on the midfielder to get forward.
Barry is certainly a bigger goal threat than the other options for a central midfield position in Michael Carrick, Tom Huddlestone and Jermaine Jenas and at 25/1, he is worth backing each-way.
Neither Scotland or Wales have faired particularly well in friendly matches in recent times and both will be looking to put that right at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday.
Between them they have managed three wins in their last 11 non-competitive outings and although Wales have beaten Estonia and Denmark in the last year, you have to go back to August 2007 for Scotland's last friendly win.
Indeed in George Burley's five friendlies in charge of the Scots, they have yet to win and scored just twice.
But six of Wales' last seven have been on foreign soil and amazingly, it's almost ten years since they lost at home in a friendly, 2-1 to Finland.
In that time they've held their own against Argentina and the Czech Republic and beaten Germany, although since that win in 2002, they have played a lot of pretty mediocre nations.
This will be Scotland's first match since boss Burley was backed by the SFA following their indifferent World Cup qualifying campaign in which they finished third behind Holland and Norway winnng just 10 points from a possible 24.
Many expected Burley to be removed from his position after failing to qualify for South Africa next summer but a good second-half in the 2-0 win over Macedonia and an impressive performance despite the 1-0 loss to Holland saw the manager keep his position.
And we reckon the Scots can take the momentum from those two games to Cardiff and send the Welsh to a rare friendly defeat.
Burley's men have a point to prove and will field a relatively strong side despite being without Craig Gordon, Kevin Thomson, Steven Whittaker, Scott Brown and Shaun Maloney.
Meanwhile, Wales are missing Craig Bellamy, James Collins, Jack Collison, Chris Gunter, Simon Davies, Boaz Myhill, Neal Eardley and David Vaughan and those absentees should hit them harder than the visitors.
Backing Scotland at 7/4 is good value.
Burley should have decent options going forward available to him with only Maloney missing and we should see Steven Fletcher starting up front after he came off the bench in the recent defeat in Japan.
The former Hibs man has been in superb form for Burnley in recent weeks with three goals in his last five games having been moved to a central role having started the season the left flank.
He is 3/1 to find the net at anytime and looks well worth backing.
Northern Ireland will be looking to get some way over their disappointment of missing out on a place at next year's World Cup when they host Serbia at Windsor Park on Saturday evening.
Nigel Worthington's men finished a creditable fourth in Group Three although their qualifying campaign promised so much more having topped the standings earlier this year following two successive home victories over Poland and Slovenia.
In their next game against the Poles in Chorzow back in September, the province were leading 1-0 before Martin Paterson missed a golden opportunity which would have effectively sealed a famous victory and put them on the brink of at least a play-off spot.
But it was not to be as Mariusz Lewandowski scored an equaliser with 10 minutes remaining at the Slaski Stadium and from that moment Northern Ireland's dreams sadly faded away.
Slovakia then overcame a wild atmosphere at Windsor Park to claim a 2-0 triumph which all but end their chances of earning a ticket to South Africa 2010 although they battled back to earn a gutsy goalless draw with the Czech Republic in Prague.
Looking back you could say it's been another step in the right direction for Northern Ireland and they certainly proved they believe in their potential to reach a major tournament rather than just make up the numbers.
At home they can beat anyone and on Saturday they look a great bet at 9/4 to see off Serbia.
Sure, Radomir Antic's men booked their World Cup spot with a game to spare in a group including 2006 runners-up France following their 5-0 mauling of Romania last month but having clearly taken their eye off the ball four days later, they lost in Lithuania.
It's at times like these when teams who have qualified for a major tournament feel they've done all the hard work and can now relax until the real countdown begins in 2010.
And of course this is when complacency is a danger and at an intimidating venue such as Windsor Park, anything less than 100% could see them become unstuck.
Striker Marko Pantelic could miss the clash with hamstring worries while Inter's Dejan Stankovic and Sevilla's Ivica Dragutinovic are also doubtful.
It could well be a time for Antic to experiment with his options while Northern Ireland will be keen to prove just how far they've come.
Preview posted at 2025GMT on 12/11/2009
