Next Sunday, 12th of October 2014, Estonia will entertain a motivated England at Le Coq Arena in Tallinn for round two of the 2016 European Qualifiers on a match during which, despite enjoying from a firm favouritism, the English side will need to be at their best if they want to overcome their hard working hosts.

After making a fairly poor image of themselves during the Brazilian World Cup last Summer, England managed to build a perfect start on the 2016 Euro Qualifiers by snatching a very important 2-0 win at Basel. Although the team’s performance was far from brilliant, the English side was able to sustain the Swiss team’s firepower and Joe Hart left his mark in the match after producing some top quality saves. Roy Hodgson successfully implemented a 4-4-2 diamond-shaped formation, with Sterling lurking behind the front men duo, and he receive some credit for that. The team’s defence line still showed some moments of lack of concentration, but one way or another they found a way to solve all of their problems.

England are on Group E of the 2016 Euro Qualifiers, alongside with Switzerland, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and San Marino. At a first glance, one might consider it to be a fairly easy group, although, the long travels to the Eastern Europe could turn out to be quite a complicated obstacle to overcome.

For the match against Estonia, it is not very likely that Roy Hodgson will implement several changes in his team when in comparison to the starting line-up he picked up for the Basel’s match one month ago, although the injury of Phil Jones could force him to make some changes in the defence line.

As for Estonia, the Baltic state started their 2016 Euro Qualifiers in good style by defeating Slovenia at home thanks to a late goal by Ats Purje. Estonia had a fairly interesting display although it was Slovenia who apparently had control of the match. The Baltic team’s work levels was amazing and if you combine that with the individual talent of some their players, such as Blackpool’s Sergei Zenjov, the experienced midfielder Joel Lindpere and the versatile striker Henri Anier, you will certainly be able to build a fairly competitive side, capable of disturbing the best teams from the Old Continent.

The last time both sides measured forces at Estonia was back in 2007 on a match that the visitors easily won by 3-0. Despite Estonia’s recent improvements, England are firm favourites to win the match.

Estonia

Stats: W2 L-3 D-0

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England

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

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Possible Line-ups

Estonia (4-1-4-1) – Pareiko - Teniste - Morozov - Klavan - Kallaste - Mets - Zenjov - Lindpere - Vunk - Purje - Anier

England (4-4-2) – Hart - Stones - Cahill - Jagielka - Baines - Henderson - Wilshere - Delph - Sterling - Rooney - Sturridge

Prediction

Estonia 1 England 2