The Athletic

Hello and welcome to the weekend preview on the Athletic Football podcast sponsored by Bet365.

I'm Dan Bardell and each and every Friday, myself and George Ellick will preview the best

of the weekend's Premier League action alongside Bet365 Steve Freeth, although we won't be doing that

this week because if you're paying attention, there is no Premier League action this weekend. So instead, we are going to talk about the Premier League and a bit of England as well. So luckily for me, we're going to talk about Stephen Gerald's appointment as the new Aston Villa boss. That's literally what I've been doing all week. We're also going to touch on Norwichy's search for Daniel Farker's replacement and then as I say we're

going to cast our minds forward to around this time next year in Qatar and try and pick an

England squad but will sancho Smith row Curtis Jones and even Deli Alley made the plane so it's

another international break with little riding on it England are assuredly going to coast through

they only need four points from Albania and San Marino to qualify.

But there is a little more interest around in the other home nations, Wales and Scotland, this week.

George, how do you see those games going?

It's going to be interesting to watch.

With Wales, it's properly going down to the wire.

You know, they have a game in hand on Czech Republic. They face Belgium in the final game. If they do win that one, then all they need is a point or for the Czech Republic to slip up in the final game. So it's going to be dramatic. I'm sure Wales rarely make it easy for themselves in the away game at Belarus.

It took a Gareth Bail, 93rd minute winner in order to get them three points.

So it's by no means a shoe in.

And for Scotland, you know, I watched Scotland's couple of qualifiers last month.

And whilst they got the job done pretty late, they weren't particularly impressive in doing so.

They've got a similar scenario where they've got Moldova, which is the big one. If they beat Moldova, then they finish seconds and they will be getting a playoff berth. But again, it's a bit of a banana skin. They're away at Moldova. The performances haven't been great so far. And if they don't get that result and if they need something on final game, it's against Denmark, who won all of their games and are yet to concede a goal. So, yeah, Scotland probably in a more commanding position to get in that top two, but with Wales, it does feel like it's properly on the knife edge. I think, Steve, the odds

reflect that as well. Yeah, they're both extremely short. They're both actually one to five to win their

game.

So World Georgia's has rightly pointed out.

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