You Bet | Cautious England and Hodgson will settle for Ukraine draw

Reaching next year's World Cup remains on the line for England and they face a crunch match on Tuesday in Ukraine, their final away game of a qualifying campaign that has turned out to be considerably more difficult than expected.

England made a solid start under Roy Hodgson, conceding only six goals in their first 10 competitive games and remaining unbeaten in 90-minute play, but a lack of cutting edge let them down, particularly against the higher-class teams.

Ukraine and Montenegro, England's next two opponents, both fall into that category. They are rated the joint-second-best teams in group H by Fifa, both ranked 28, but Tuesday's match is the most difficult left for England, by virtue of being away from home.

Matches between countries both rated in the Fifa top 30 tend to be tightly contested and Hodgson may well be happy to return from Ukraine with a draw. In the past decade England have won just four out of 11 away to teams ranked in the top 30, with four draws and three defeats - a record that is far from unusual even for a country from the world's top 10.

Two of those away matches were against Ukraine and both ended 1-0. The first game was four years ago in World Cup qualifying, when Ukraine came out on top but had two significant factors in their favour - England had already qualified and played most of the match with 10 men after goalkeeper Rob Green was sent off in the 14th minute.

A better guide, perhaps, is England's win in Euro 2012, when Ukraine were co-hosts but were knocked out by Wayne Rooney's winning goal. But the ageing Ukraine side led at Euro 2012 by Andriy Shevchenko has been refreshed by an influx of younger players, while Rooney is unavailable for England after his training-ground accident.