King of Stats: All the numbers as Cole brings up England ton

Ashley Cole will win his 100th England cap when the Three Lions take on Brazil at Wembley and we’ve compiled a King of Stats package to help those trend-conscious punters among us decide where to put their money.

14 – Despite facing the likes of China and Iraq in recent months, Brazil are unquestionably the form side coming into this game. They’ve won 14 of their previous 17 and will start this game as 11/8 favourites.

8 – One of the key reasons behind this hot streak is their sought-after striker Neymar. Aged just 20, the Santos star has 17 goals to show for his 27 caps and has notched an ominous (as far as England are concerned) eight in his last five. Back him at 5/1 to open the scoring at Wembley.

4 – England haven’t performed as well as many would have hoped in recent years, but one thing to their credit is that they don’t lose very often. In their last 20 clashes with fellow top-20 ranked sides, they have only lost in 90 minutes on four occasions and this could alert bettors to their double chance price of 1/2.

1 – This game heralds the dawn of Luiz Feilipe Scolari’s second spell in charge of the Brazilians. He won 18 of his 24 matches at the helm last time around – one of which being the World Cup final, of course – but only drew once. This may deter any interest in the 9/4 that’s on offer for a stalemate here.

14 – Encouragingly for spectators, Scolari’s record forecasts goals. In his 17 competitive games in charge his side conceded 14 times. Brazil’s ability in the final third needs no introduction so backing both teams to score might be the way to go here; it’s available at 4/6.

1956 – Since this year, England have only scored two goals against Brazil in one game which maybe makes backing the hosts to notch fewer than 1.5 at 4/9.

25 – Over 2.5 Brazil goals is worth a punt based on the fact that free-scoring Selecao bagged 25 times in just seven outings this season; it pays handsomely at 9/2.

14 – Of the last 16 instances which these two have renewed hostilities, 14 of them have yielded fewer than 2.5 goals total. Those who envisage this trend to continue can back it at 4/5.

0 – Injury-permitting, Cole will be become the first England outfield player to rack up 100 appearances without scoring a goal. Back him to break his duck any time in the game at 16/1.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date