The 2018 FIFA World Cup gets underway next Thursday at 4pm with hosts Russia facing Saudi Arabi in Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium. From a tournament betting perspective, I think the best England can hope for is the quarter finals because I’m not confident manager Southgate has what it takes to win the big games against the top teams due to his lack of experience. It’s frustrating because they have the individual talent, but just haven’t been able to find a proven world class manager who can galvanise and bring out the best of them, both as individuals and as a team.

I think it’s worth siding with a couple of proven European teams to win this year’s World Cup because only one South American team has won when the tournament when it was hosted in Europe, which was Brazil in Sweden back in 1958. Germany (5/1) and France (13/2) both have the pedigree having won the tournament when it was played in Europe and they both have an abundance of talent and match winners on offer, which I believe makes them serious challengers.

There’s also a couple of Golden Boot/Top Goal scorer selections I like that should score enough goals to challenge for the honour. France’s Antione Griezmann (12/1) and Poland’s Robert Lewondoski (33/1) are both proven world class goal scorers for both country and their respective clubs, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich. They both reside in Groups that their respective countries have a good chance of winning if they produce their best form and more importantly where Griezmann and Lewondoski should get plenty of good opportunities to rack up some quick early goals against potentially weaker opposition.