ENGLAND’S ROAD HOME

 “It’s coming home”  is a statement we hear indiscriminately in every international tournament as far as England and it’s fans are concerned. But alas, time and time again “it” fails to “come home”. The pattern is mostly the same every time, whether it be the FIFA World Cup or the UEFA EUROs. England encounter a moderately challenging group stage and they progress rather comfortably each time. The squad is stacked with quality players and the manager is capable enough. Then sooner or later they encounter a quality side. Quality, but still beatable nonetheless, after all England has always boasted a squad which contains world class players in nearly every position. But they falter every time. The manager being tactically naïve, the players being mentally weak or something as simple as a player error. Reasons are varied, the result is the same. It doesn’t come home.

EURO 2020 *could* be different though. First of all the fact that England have just beaten a very threatening Germany side 2-0 to progress into the Quarter-Final stages of the competition may suggest that they have broken the pattern. More importantly, that they’ve surpassed the mental blockade. But that is not the entire picture, not even close. Now let’s take a look at the prospective opponents that England can face on their way to the finals.

Quarter finals – Ukraine

Semi Finals – Denmark/Czech Republic

Finals – Belgium/Italy/Switzerland/Spain

Safe to say, nobody can blame England for harboring a sense of optimism as far as reaching the finals is concerned. Denmark and Czech Republic have fought well but England keep their composure and their quality will surely pull them through.

Now coming onto the Finals itself. Once we start dissecting the teams we see that Belgium are a huge threat in terms of attack and boast of a very balanced and penetrative midfield aswell, although their defence might be a bit lax behind England. Italy are an extremely well balanced side throughout the XI and are probably the most tactically astute setup among them all. Mancini is their biggest asset no doubt. Spain and Switzerland fall into similar categories in my opinion. Decent elevens but have had to fight tooth and nail to reach the final eight. Good on their day, of course but good enough to go all the way? Good enough to even reach the final? As you can see, the question marks are there.

All in all where do England stand then? On extremely strong ground I’d say. They have the quality in their starting XI. They have game changers such as Rashford. Sancho, Grealish and Bellingham on their bench. Southgate may be conservative but he is wise in his choices. So even if it ends up going into extra time at some stage, the Lions have tactical maturity as-well-as player quality in the dugout to drag them across the line. So there we have it. Nothing is guaranteed in Football but England hold extremely favorable cards. Taking it all into account, this very well might be the year where it all falls into place for the nation that started kicking the ball before anyone else did. Either way, it makes for an amazing spectacle for all of us sitting behind our screens. And a memory of a lifetime for the ones who are lucky enough to be sitting in the stadiums.