Next Saturday, 15th of November 2014, a 100% victorious England will measure forces with a motivated Slovenia at the overwhelming Wembley Stadium for the Euro 2016 Qualifiers, a match that might help the English side to cement their position at the top of the table or might backfire in case of defeat.

England’s campaign for the Euro 2016 has been “perfect” so far. After a disappointing World Cup stint last Summer, Roy Hodgson, who was severely criticized over his team’s performances in the Brazilian tournament, managed to rally the troops and the team managed to win all the three matches in which they took part so far.

Last month, when they visited Tallinn to play against Estonia, the English side experienced several difficulties to overcome their Baltic opponents. The match ended in a narrow 1-0 win for England, thanks to a flawless free-kick from Wayne Rooney on the 74th minute that Pareiko didn’t manage to stop. The English were in control of the match, with 70% of ball possession and almost four hands full of goal attempts but their intents were constantly frustrated by an inspired Sergei Pareiko, who, hadn’t been for Rooney’s goal, would certainly have been the man of the match.

England started their campaign with an impressive win at Switzerland and after that they  easily overcame San Marino at Wembley. It is fair to mention, that despite all the criticism, Roy Hodgson has been doing a good job with the English side so far and of late, as he is proving to be capable of reinventing a team that could very well have reached the end of the line during the last Summer’s World Cup. For the upcoming match against Slovenia, Hodgson handed the first England senior call-up to West Brom’s striker Saido Berahino and he has also promoted the return of Michael Carrick, Stewart Downing, Theo Walcott and Ross Barkley to the squad.

As for Slovenia, after failing once again to mark their presence at the Brazil’s World Cup, they started the Euro 2016 campaign on a very slow pace by being defeated by Estonia back in September. Srecko Katanec returned to helm of the team last year, after he commanded Slovenia in the Euro 2000 and on the 2002 World Cup, in a desperate attempt to restore some of the team’s lost dignity and to tackle the slow decline the Slovenians found themselves in following his departure 12 years ago.

On their last qualification match, Slovenia grabbed an important win over Lithuania at Vilnius on a match that was everything but easy. Katanec’s boys, nevertheless, managed to snatch the three points, thanks to two goals by Milivoje Novakovic in just five minutes.

Despite Slovenia’s recent improvements, England have everything in their favour to win next Saturday’s match and to continue their excellent moment.

England

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

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Slovenia

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

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Possible Line-ups

England (4-4-2) – Hart - Chambers - Cahill - Jagielka - Baines - Henderson - Wilshere - Milner - Sterling - Rooney - Welbeck

Slovenia (4-1-3-2) – Handanovic - Brecko - Ilic - Cesar - Struna - Stevanovic - Pecnik - Kurtic - Kirm - Kampl - Novakovic

Prediction

England 2 Slovenia 1