England World Cup 2018

England World Cup 2018

England will again head into a major tournament with the hopes of a nation at their feet, but with the knowledge that fans expect things to once again end in heartbreak.

History at the World Cup

Flag EnglandEngland invented modern football, so it’s somewhat surprising that they have only ever won the World Cup once in their history. That win, at Wembley in 1966, has become the symbol of how many years of hurt the English fans have suffered since. Since that memorable achievement, England have managed to reach just one Semi Final. That came in Italy in 1990, when Germany ended the run of Shilton, Lineker, Gazza, and co. via penalty shoot-out.

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They failed to qualify for USA 1994, and have since become a team who cannot get the job done when it comes down to the business end of a tournament. A shoot-out loss to Argentina in 1998 was followed by two Quarter Final appearances, losing to Brazil in 2002 and Portugal on penalties in 2006. They then made it to the last 16 in 2010, before being totally outplayed by Germany, and then couldn’t get through the group stage in 2014. Coming into this tournament, England have a reputation for always giving it their best but ultimately falling short when it matters.

  • World Cup Finals Appearances – 14
  • Previous Best Performance – Winners

How they qualified

It was a shaky start to qualifying for England, with a 95th minute goal securing a 1-0 win away in Slovakia in what was Sam Allardyce’s first match in-charge.

England Team
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Managerial upheaval followed, with Allardyce removed from his position and Gareth Southgate taking the job on a temporary basis.

Southgate eventually took the job permanently and oversaw a qualifying campaign that ended with England topping a group containing Slovakia, Scotland, Slovenia, Lithuania, and Malta.

Eight wins and two draws were enough to finish eight points clear of second place and book their place on the plane to Russia.

Coach/Manager

Gareth Southgate will always be remembered as the player who missed the decisive penalty in a shoot-out defeat to Germany in the Semi Final of Euro 1996. But, he is proving to be a fantastic choice of manager.

Southgate, who earned fifty-seven national team caps as a player, has shown a tendency to pick his squads based on form instead of reputation and has given several future stars their first cap.

His philosophy seems to be to build for the future, and it’s a refreshing approach following several managers who only pick players from the top clubs regardless of their form.

At the time of writing this, Southgate has led England to seven wins and five draws from fourteen matches in-charge. Their only two defeats have been to Germany and France in friendly internationals.

Star Players

England’s most recent squads have been a mixture of youth and experience, with several stand-out players at club level.

The star player in the squad is undoubtedly Harry Kane. The Tottenham striker has netted twelve goals from twenty-three appearances for the national team, and approaching ninety Premier League goals in the last three and a half seasons.

Harry Kane World cup 2018Players like Dele Alli, Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling, and Eric Dier are all a major part of the national team set-up and are young enough to be a part of it for several years to come. They are among some extremely talented players who could cause any team problems when on-form.

Experience in the squad is found with players like central defender Gary Cahill, goalkeeper Joe Hart, and midfielder Jordan Henderson. These three may not be the greatest players in the world, but their experience at this level is invaluable to the younger players.

England World Cup 2018: Assessing Their Chances & Odds

England are priced at 16/1 with most bookmakers to win the World Cup and it’s difficult not to think those odds are a little on the short side. English football fans will tell you that, although they will get behind their team and support them until the end, the belief is that a hard-fought defeat will spell an early end to the tournament at an early knock-out stage.

England’s failure to get out of the group in 2014, and a shock defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016, has lessened the expectation levels even more. Despite this pessimistic attitude, we believe that England will comfortably make it past the group stage on this occasion. Belgium provide a tough challenge, but the winner should top the group and the loser should go through as runners-up. With no disrespect to Panama or Tunisia, the two European teams are in a completely different class.

So, if they do indeed make it through, a second-round encounter with the winner or runners-up of Group H awaits. Regardless of who this turns out to be, England should have enough quality to see them off. But, a Quarter Final with Brazil or Germany is highly likely and that could be step too far for the English.

Our England World Cup Prediction

They will undoubtedly put up a fight, and possibly even take it all the way to a penalty shoot-out, but it’ll probably end in tears at the Quarter Final stage for England and its legion of long-suffering fans.