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England haven’t beaten Portugal since a friendly back in 1998, and the last competitive win was in 1966 – and we all know what happened then. If you’re looking for a slightly different bet, check out the World Cup markets at Sporting Index. We’ve taken a look at some of their prices (see preview below) - new clients can claim a big free bet:

£200 World Cup Bet for New Clients

Open a Sporting Index account*, place five sports bets (each with the potential to win and lose £20) and claim a free £200 per goal bet on any live World Cup match.**

*Credit and suitability checks, **terms and conditions apply. See site for further details about an account with Sporting Index. Sports spread betting involves a high level of risk and you can lose more than your original stake. It is not suitable for everyone so please ensure that you understand the risks involved and only bet with money you can afford to lose.

For full details of these offers, and apply for your Sporting Index account, click here!!!

England v Portugal Preview

Although England don’t have a good record against the Portuguese, Sporting Index have still got them as favourites to win by 0.3 to 0.5 goals on their “Supremacy” market. This is influenced by the fact that Portugal are missing both Deco and Costinha through suspension. However, Big Phil has proven to be Sven’s nemesis twice before in the big competitions. He managed to beat England with 10 men in Shizuoka in 2002 when Ronaldinho was sent off. Two years later he successfully changed formation in Lisbon after Rooney was forced off through injury. With the influential Figo available, and Ronaldo looking likely to figure, Scolari could dash English hopes for a third successive tournament.

On top of this, Scolari has never lost a World Cup match. In fact, the 11 straight victories he has enjoyed with Brazil in 2002 and now Portugal is a record. His current team has also not lost a match (competitive or friendly) since the Euro 2004 final. On the other hand, England are still unbeaten in Germany. Although Sven’s team have only scored five goals so far, Portugal have only managed six. On the back of this, and the other low-scoring matches in this round, Sporting Index predict a total of just 2.1 to 2.3 goals will be scored in 90 minutes.

So in this battle of wits between the Swedish iceman and Big Phil, formation will be key. In the Ecuador match, Carrick made more passes than any other England player, (66 in total, 57 successful). He also spent significantly longer on the ball (196.9 seconds) than anyone else – Ashley Cole is in second place with 156 seconds. However, Carrick didn’t make a single tackle (Terry topped that list, with 5). In fact, England’s three central midfielders only made one between them.

Although the boy wonder Rooney had the lowest possession of any England player at just 84.5 seconds, he looks ready to start scoring. With his Goal Minutes priced up at 14 to 17, you’d expect to see plenty of punters betting high at 17 minutes. Lampard may have missed an impressive 18 shots so far, but he’s doing something right to have had so many goes and England’s top scorer in the qualifiers has got to get lucky sooner or later; he is available at 11 to 14 minutes. Even though Pauleta has been quiet by his standards (many tipped him for the Golden Boot), his spread of 10 to 13 also looks tempting.

Bookings are likely to figure prominently in the betting as well. So far, there has been an average of 5.6 yellow cards per match across the tournament. England have been given seven cards over four matches, whereas Portugal have an impressive 18. Although this includes nine cards earned in their very negative match against Holland, a “grudge” match like this could get feisty. Sporting Index has a price of 68 to 72 points on their Bookings market (10 points for a yellow card, 25 for red). Having seen Portugal v Holland settle at 220 points (four red and 16 yellow cards), there won’t be many punters betting low on Saturday.

Total Tournament Yellow Cards

At the start of this tournament, Sporting Index predicted the total number of yellow cards shown in all 64 matches was 270 to 280. As more and more have been dished out, this price has moved up and up, currently standing at 326 to 330 (276 cards shown after 54 matches). With 10 matches to go, there’s still plenty of time to take an interest in this market.

Hopefully that’s given you something to think about. For all the latest prices and to apply for your Sporting Index account, click here!!!

Sporting Index is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

All prices correct at time of writing. The information contained herein is for your general information and use. In particular, it does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation by Sporting Index Ltd and is not intended to be relied upon by users in making (or refraining to make) any specific decisions.