Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
They would have on the other hand people also would be surprised if you told them Germany and Spain wouldn't make the Quarter Finals. The draw opened up in such a way that England wouldn't have had to play a 'better' team than them until the final. In the end we got here by beating Tunisia, Panama, Colombia and Sweden. Pessimistic or not those are teams we should have beaten.
It's not just about the quality of the team but an element of luck as well and we had that in this tournament. You have to take your chances when you can because in four years time we might have a final route which includes Germany, Spain and/or Brazil.
The team did better than expected, they played nicer football and are more likable but you can't help but feel we threw away the chance to play in a World Cup final for only the second time ever.
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Agreed - I thought that Croatia deserved to win, as they played more attacking/aggressive football and seemed to have more "go" in the second half/extra time, and all through the competition England (mostly) seemed to lack the killer instinct in the box (often dawdling/passing instead of shooting for goal), but hopefully experience will bring that.
I still think they did well to be the third English team to get to the semi-finals in 68 years, and the second in the last 52 years, and the first in the last 28 years.