Where will England finish in the World Cup

I'll be out drinking for a week if we do!

Group stage.

Bye bye Gareth.

Redskin said:

Bitter experience: I've been saying for years that our repeated failure is psychological rather than a lack of talent.

Might be both this year .

killerandflash said:

QF is a bit optimistic, but I think we'll get through the group and I don't think we'll meet anyone really good in the first knockout match

So more realistic than optimistic. If we beat Tunisia we are almost certain to get out of the group. Whilst difficult games, we would probably start favourites against Columbia or Poland so QF is very realistic. Need to beat Tunisia though and they are not a bad side and good defensively!

Very concerned about the hype around the " Iceland 5 " - Rose, Dier, Ali , Kane and Walker ( now at Man City ) who once again won nothing at Spurs . They will be in most of starting lineups and are on paper about a match for the likes of Sweden , Australia and maybe Denmark but we can forget about anyone better than that . 4 games and we are out

Quarter finals for me as well.

Watching Spain tonight makes me realise just how second division England are.

Last 16 if we get Columbia, quarters if Poland

ashley said:

Very concerned about the hype around the " Iceland 5 " - Rose, Dier, Ali , Kane and Walker ( now at Man City ) who once again won nothing at Spurs . They will be in most of starting lineups and are on paper about a match for the likes of Sweden , Australia and maybe Denmark but we can forget about anyone better than that . 4 games and we are out

To be fair, three of them are starters, the last three, and they are all decent players.

I am unsure about Southgate. I would have made qualifying his interview and I thought he could have done a bit better. The performance against Holland recently was one of the most impressive performances from an England team for a long time - but whilst we have had some steady victories since, I haven't seen that quality of play.

If he can unlock that, England will be genuine contenders and he will deserve all the plaudits. Anything less than Quarters and we should be looking for the alternative. That's how it should be for an international manager. Giving Hodgson three tournaments to fail in, and make the same mistakes in, was ludicrous.

Anyway, I wish Southgate well. He can make history or he can flop. We all hope it is the former.

Anyone saying anything past 1/4s remember that England have won 3 knockout games away from Wembley, in normal time, Ever.

Granted they won 2 in extra time in 1990 and we have never won a world cup shoot out losing 4.

Add in the freak goals by Brazil and Argentina that knocked us out, both went on to win the tournemt BTW and the disallowed goals against Argentina and Portugal maybe we are due some luck......

We win it , everyone pony , someone’s gotta win it so why not us

I posted this 4 years ago and I think it will apply this year. The only reason I have us getting out of the group is that the third and fourth teams in our group are poor .

1. Coming out of a disappointing previous World Cup, there are low expectations

2 - we convince ourselves that the next generation of players will be the next golden generation

3 - we get excited about the premier league and argue that it is the best league in the world, forgetting it is actually the second best league in the world and only because of the foreign players

4 - we hire a new manager who we swear will get the tactics and formation right for our world class players

5 - we perform ok in qualifying in an easy group and we demolish some no name country in a friendly leading up to the cup. Our expectations are at an all time unrealistic level.

6 we perform poorly in the cup. Rinse. Repeat.