What chance do you think England have of getting out of the group?

[Gullflyinghigh]

I'd say 2/3. I can see us picking up 4 points from our 3 games...at which point it's likely to be out of our hands as to whether we escape the group or not.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

You must never write off Italy. Yes I think England can beat them, but Italy are always there or thereabouts at nearly every single tournament. I find it strange how the pundits write off Italy at every single tournament and then two weeks or three weeks later Italy are there.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/ed...ps-and-28-european-trophies-why-are-italy-the

Totally agree, and I'm certainly not writing them off. I just don't think they're great going forward - I would rather face them in the group stage than the knockout. Having said that, let's not forget that when they dominated us 2 years ago they couldn't score - so even at their best and us at our worst, we still drew over 120 minutes

 

[Simster]

I'm very confident about England. It's nice to be going to a major tournament with a manager who has been so bold and ambitious in his selection. Even if we don't progress, we've got a good number of talented young players now who will have some great experience to their names. But I think we will, I predict Uruguay will miss out. I also think Costa Rica will be tougher than everybody expects.

Exactly this. Costa Rica will not be turning up to make up the numbers, they're a decent side. I think the key to our progression is our midfield, and we look alright in that department.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Draw v Italy
Loss v Uruguay
Dire draw v Costa Rica

OUT

 

[Hillian1]

Draw v Italy
Loss v Uruguay
Dire draw v Costa Rica

OUT

The more I look at that, the more I think it will happen.

 

[Simster]

The more I look at that, the more I think it will happen.

As long as we play to the best of our ability, I'm strangely relaxed about it all. Probably because I don't think we have a team capable of going deep into the tournament. We don't have good enough strikers or centre backs.

I remember 2002 under Sven when it was all very different. I was an admirer of him at the time, but the more I think about it, the more I think I was completely wrong and the likes of [MENTION=70]Easy 10[/MENTION] were right. England were negative and withdrawn, despite having a very potent attacking side with a quality strike force and equally good midfield. Looking back on it, that team could have won the tournament with the right manager.

 

[Czechmate]

I think they will get to Semi's at least , very excited about it this year !

 

[Tricky Dicky]

My worry would be the Costa Rice match. In my head, not sure if the stats back this up, but Ii feel we under-perform against the so-called minnows and get a draw. That leaves us needing to get good resuls in the other two games. The fact that this game is the third one may help as presumably we'll know what we need to do.

 

[SouthCoastOwl]

Not really, only truly care about the albion.

Fair comment, enjoy the reception and have a fab day

 

[beefypigeon]

3 for me.

Imho Both Uruguay and Italy are in a similar league, wouldn't fear either of them. Italy's danger for me is Pirlo (still), and obviously Uruguay have Suarez. Take them out of the equation and I think we have a better squad than them both.

I think climate will be a big factor. Both Uruguay and CR shouldn't have much of a problem acclimatising, whereas I think we'll probably struggle more than the others to cope with the heat.

So all in all, I think we have a 50-50 chance!

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

I look at our squad and I don't see the international quality. Hart, Gerrard, Rooney - and who else?

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

3, we'll be very lucky if we do do it