England vs Albania Prediction: Bets, Context, and Lineups
Best Bets for England vs Albania
- England to win and Both Teams to Score (No) @ -163 with bet365
- England to win 3-0 @ +500 with bet365
- England to Winning at Half time @ -188 with bet365
All odds are courtesy of bet365, correct at the time of publishing and subject to change.
Our Analysis: Form of Both Teams
It’s Matchday 1 of England’s promising 2026 World Cup qualification campaign. In a group featuring Albania, Andorra, Latvia and Serbia, Friday’s visitors to Wembley could be their toughest test in Group K.
Thomas Tuchel has been preparing for this match against Albania for several weeks. England were nearly flawless in their UEFA Nations League group, aside from a shock home defeat to Greece.
Tuchel is expected to feature several familiar faces in his first starting XI against Albania, along with a few new names. Although these new additions will be debutants, most of them are in great form domestically. They should settle in well against a nation that finished bottom of their League B group in the Nations League.
Albania won only two of their six League B group games in their recent Nations League campaign. They also managed just four goals scored in those games, which underlines their biggest issue.
The Albanians travel to London without multiple first-choice defenders, including Mario Mitaj and Elseid Hysaj. Meanwhile, the absence of the forward-thinking trio Anis Mehmeti, Taulant Seferi and Mirlind Daku will also be a significant blow.
Probable Lineups for England vs Albania
England Expected Lineup: Pickford; James, Lewis-Skelly, Guehi, Burn, Rice, Bellingham, Foden, Rashford, Bowen, Kane
Albania Expected Lineup: Strakosha; Balliu, Ismajli, Ajeti, Laci, Ramadani, Asllani, Asani, Bajrami, Muci, Broja
Revamped and Solid Defence to Contain Albania
Albania’s tally of just four goals in six League B Nations League matches doesn't bode well against England.
In fact, Albania have managed just one goal in six competitive meetings with the Three Lions. This makes an England victory with a clean sheet a strong bet.
England’s backline could feature two debutants in Myles Lewis-Skelly and Dan Burn. Both of these players are in great form for Arsenal and Newcastle respectively, and they should be able to contain Albania’s struggling attack.
- England vs Albania Bet 1: England to win and Both Teams to Score (No) @ -163 with bet365
Eventual Victory Anticipated
Only 50% of England’s competitive meetings with Albania have featured three or more goals. Although they thrashed Albania 5-0 at Wembley in November 2021, we are reluctant to back a goal fest here.
That’s largely due to the changes Thomas Tuchel is making to the starting XI, which could affect the on-field chemistry at times. Nevertheless, we still expect them to secure a victory.
Off the back of massive clean sheet victories last time out, and at Wembley a 3-0 winning scoreline is well within the the Three Lions wheelhouse especially as Albania will fail to test Jordan Pickford at the other end.
- England vs Albania Bet 2: England to win 3-0 @ +500 with bet365
Three Lions to Settle In
As this is a new-look England team and the start of a new era under Tuchel, the start of the match could be cautious. Although a goalless first half is not anticipated, the third of our England vs Albania predictions is for England to be leading by only one goal at half-time.
We have remained confident throughout this preview that Albania will fail to score. Therefore, we are ultimately backing a 1-0 half-time scoreline here.
- England vs Albania Bet 3: England to Winning at Half time @ -188 with bet365