Realistic expectations of England’s chances

Quarter finals, don’t think we’ll win the group. 1 win and 2 draws. Last World Cup the players looked drained by the quarters/semifinals, this season has been even more demanding so pressing will be out of the window by that stage of the tournament. I’m not sure England have the quality in midfield still to just keep hold of the ball and conserve energy.
Plus if Harry Kane keeps playing deeper you lose that finisher in the box, Rashford, Sterling, Sancho can all run in behind but I’d rather it be Kane who the chances are falling too. Plus it’s a quick way to tire the players out with games so close together.
 
Would really like to see us beat one of the big names. Seems a while since we managed this in a Euros or World Cup.
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
Second phase is our norm, I think it could be this year too, if we do well in the group stage.
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I think that is a misconception at the European Championships.

As posted on the other thread out of 15 Euro finals tournaments, we've not played in 6, not got out of the groups in 4 and we got knocked out at the 1st knockout stage 3 times.
We've only won one knockout game & that was actually a draw that went to penalties.
 
coluka said:
I get what you mean. However, I really hope we do because i think we have a terrible set of centre backs in our squad, woeful, more ricks than a farmers field, our quality is in the final third. I think we need to be as tight and miserable at the back as we can be and hope the likes of Foden, Mount, Grealish and Sterling can supply Kane to do his thing whilst chipping in with the odd goal themselves. I don’t see us having many clean sheets in truth. I can see a few 2-1 scorelines and score draws in the knockout stages. We need to get practising penalties and keep Henderson well away from them.
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Agree I don't think we can play with only 2 centre backs when our options are so poor
 
coluka said:
I think we could possibly make the semi’s with a little luck along the way, I say that in hope more than expectation. A lot will depend on how the draw pans out during the group stages. We look fairly strong offensively but we are going into the competition with one of the worst set of centre backs i have seen in an England squad ever. Mings, Coady, Stones an injured Maguire and the in experienced White. This position above anything will be our undoing i fear. Judging by Sir Gareths decision to include White, I think he does too.
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Yep, people get carried away by our attacking options (which is fair enough) but it's hard to win any tournament, let alone an international one, without a good defence.

Attackers might get the headlines, but most world cup winners have 2 or more top drawer defenders in their ranks. We don't really have any.
 
LowMoorBoro said:
Quarter finals, don’t think we’ll win the group. 1 win and 2 draws. Last World Cup the players looked drained by the quarters/semifinals, this season has been even more demanding so pressing will be out of the window by that stage of the tournament. I’m not sure England have the quality in midfield still to just keep hold of the ball and conserve energy.
Plus if Harry Kane keeps playing deeper you lose that finisher in the box, Rashford, Sterling, Sancho can all run in behind but I’d rather it be Kane who the chances are falling too. Plus it’s a quick way to tire the players out with games so close together.
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Quarter Final is about our level
 
Anything beyond the second round is a decent tournament. I think teams will be fearful of our attacking options but we are probably a little too raw and lacking in resiliance to go beyond the quarters. We will be better prepared in 2 or 4 years with more experience for our class players like Foden.

As soon as we meet BElguim or France, we will be out. Italy, Portugal and Germany we would be 50-50 in those games.
 
'As soon as we meet BElguim or France, we will be out. Italy, Portugal and Germany we would be 50-50 in those games.'

I agree, but none of those teams will want to face us either.
 
You would at least expect us to get out of the group but I don’t even think that’s a walk in the park. We have the team that knocked us out of the WC semi final, then Scotland who will be hellbent on trying to beat us. Czech Republic aren’t that bad either.

After that you just never know. These tournaments rarely pan out how you expect. Portugal won the last one and probably weren’t considered the best side. Wales went quite far. Greece have won it when nobody expected etc.

We got to the WC semi final, people will say we had an easy route but in the past we have bottled games like the Sweden and Colombia ones. Sometimes failed to get out of tournament groups. So I feel the group of players we have now are a bit more fearless than previous generations.

As long as we get out of the group, then nothing can happen from there. On our day, I’d fancy us to give anyone a good game and beat them.

besides, I’m sure other countries look at our squad too and see some names and think we won’t be a walkover.
 
We have as good as chance as anyone - did anyone see Greece winning the Euros when they did?
Have faith and we can do very well.
The starting eleven will have a lot of pace and quality in it.
I have been watching the likes of Portugal and Germany and I don't see anything to fear - the Dutch are no great shakes as are Spain
France are the team to beat and we may not meet them till later on in the competition if we both win our groups.
 
HiredGun123 said:
You would at least expect us to get out of the group but I don’t even think that’s a walk in the park. We have the team that knocked us out of the WC semi final, then Scotland who will be hellbent on trying to beat us. Czech Republic aren’t that bad either.

After that you just never know. These tournaments rarely pan out how you expect. Portugal won the last one and probably weren’t considered the best side. Wales went quite far. Greece have won it when nobody expected etc.

We got to the WC semi final, people will say we had an easy route but in the past we have bottled games like the Sweden and Colombia ones. Sometimes failed to get out of tournament groups. So I feel the group of players we have now are a bit more fearless than previous generations.

As long as we get out of the group, then nothing can happen from there. On our day, I’d fancy us to give anyone a good game and beat them.

besides, I’m sure other countries look at our squad too and see some names and think we won’t be a walkover.
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Czech Republic are awful - saw Italy thump them the other day 4-0
We put 5 past them last time we played them I think?
 
joeydiaz said:
I think we will get to the final against France, not sure how that pans out. Playing the bulk of the games at Wembley is going to be massive. It’s all in our hands.
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Yeah I think the 'home' advantage is going to be key for us. It seems the tournament is being stacked in the favour of a few of the bigger nations only having to play in their own 'home' stadiums while others have to travel a lot.
 
allied_assault said:
Czech Republic are awful - saw Italy thump them the other day 4-0
We put 5 past them last time we played them I think?
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They beat us in the Euro qualifiers I think

they had a draw against Belgium a couple of months ago in the WC qualifiers

So, they’re capable over the course of a single game. It’s not like facing Panama at the World Cup.
 
Quarters for me. FIFA ranking (4th) suggests we should be targeting the semis but I can't see our defence being able to cope with top sides.
 
The group isn't quite as hard as the World Cup in Brazil but isn't far off either. England need to be at their best in all three games and then again in the second round if they qualify. Despite having some brilliant players England could be out early as I don't think the consistency is there. It's a long shot to expect another Semi-Final appearance.
 
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