Tuesday 9th September 2025

In Across the Leagues today:

• World Cup 2026 Qualifiers…
• Serbia v England, live on ITV1…
• Plus - Ronaldo, Haaland, and 2 trebles… 

Serbia v England tonight: Make your own fun at 60/1…

It takes no effort to get excited about the return of the Premier League this weekend… the Champions League next week.. or the World Cup next summer…

But as I’ve said before, I’m not a great fan of these International breaks. You can’t have a World Cup without the Qualifiers being played first, though…

And after Italy pulled off a come-from-behind 5-4 (FIVE-FOUR) win last night, maybe there is excitement to be had in the current midweek fixture list after all…

If Serbia v England turns out to be a nine-goal thriller tonight, I’ll eat my hat. But we don’t necessarily need a goal-fest in order to enjoy this one…

We can study the stats and play the formbook to make our own fun. With a couple of trebles for tonight’s European fixtures…

• 6 of Serbia’s last 7 games (and 12 of their last 14) have gone Under 2.5 Goals. They won 1-0 in Latvia at the weekend
• England have kept 6 clean sheets in a row in competitive matches, and are yet to concede a goal in this World Cup 2026 Qualifying campaign  
• Serbia are also yet to concede, and have kept 5 clean sheets in a row at home
• These nations have met once before, with England prevailing 1-0 in an attritional Euro 2024 opener last summer  

That scrappy, sole previous meeting between Serbia and England produced just four shots on target. In comparison, there were twice as many shots on target in yesterday’s 1-0 win for the Faroe Islands away at Gibraltar…

After England’s uninspiring 2-0 win v Andorra on Saturday - and with Serbia’s strong low-goals form - the bookies make Under 2.5 Goals an 8/13 (1.62) shot for this evening’s game. That’s leg one of our first treble today…
 
Cristiano Ronaldo scored a brace for Portugal at the weekend, and the 40-year-old phenom shows no signs of stopping. Ronaldo to Score Anytime at 8/11 (1.73) goes in as leg two (Hungary v Portugal)...

Talking of star strikers, Erling Haaland is on a seven-game scoring run for Norway, and  Haaland to Score Anytime makes up the final part of our 5/2 (3.5) treble (Norway v Moldova).

Elsewhere tonight, fellow veterans, 39-year-old Edin Dzeko and 36-year-old Marko Arnautovic, will respectively be looking to break the deadlock in the Bosnia & Herzegovina v Austria game…

The away team looks a little short at odds-on for the away win there, and considering that three of the five previous meetings between those countries have been draws, and that Austria and Bosnia & Herzegovina are the current top two in qualification Group H, the draw is an appealing price option here at around 11/4 (3.75)...

Given the stats mentioned above, a (bore) draw between Serbia and England would surprise few, too…

And lower down the table in that Group, a stalemate in the Albania v Latvia match holds decent appeal, too. Every match these two have ever played against each other has ended all-square. Including a 1-1 draw last time they met, in June of this year.

Backing ‘three draws’ has been a winning angle for us before, and odds of 50/1+ in general are available for this draw treble this evening. With one or two firms going 60/1 (and remember, you can often get an odds-boost special from the likes of Bet365, too):

Bosnia & Herzegovina v Austria - DRAW
Serbia v England - DRAW
Albania v Latvia - DRAW

Here are those three draws on Oddschecker:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TODAY’S PICKS & BEST ODDS

See above for full details
  
World Cup 2026 Qualifiers, Europe

TONIGHT - 7.45pm kick-offs

• TREBLE. Serbia v England: Under 2.5 Goals, Hungary v Portugal: Ronaldo to Score, Norway v Moldova: Haaland to Score @ 5/2 (3.5) Skybet, Ladbrokes, Coral, 9/4+ (3.25+) general
• TREBLE. Draws: Bosnia & Herzegovina v Austria, Serbia v England, Albania v Latvia @ 60/1 Bet365, BetMGM, 50/1+ general

----------------------------------------------------------

I’ll be back on Friday with your Weekend Preview and Picks…

Enjoy the football…

Best wishes,

Oliver Upstone

Across the Leagues