Date Published 01 June 2018
The World Cup 2018 has been underway for two weeks today and what a start to the tournament it has been.
There has been some great football being played, a new element of drama bought to each match with the introduction of VAR and even favourites for the trophy being knocked out at the group stages. It's a very tricky one to predict who stands a chance to win the tournament as the level of football being played this year has been at a very high standard.
We have already secured our place in the next stages but our eyes are still going to be drawn to our TVs tonight as we take on Belgium to decide who takes the top spot in Group G.
We of course want to win tonight but the idea that finishing second place may be a better route to the trophy is floating around so let's look at the different outcomes of the result tonight.
If we win tonight, we will join Uruguay and Croatia as the only teams to win all the group games and will set up a last-16 tie against the runner-up in Group H. Senegal are currently in the runner-up position but that could all change depending on the outcomes of Japan's and Colombia's final games that are due to take place this afternoon as either of them could also take the 2nd spot.
Winning tonight would see us line up against four of the top seven sides in the world according to the latest Fifa rankings and would look something link this….
Last 16: England vs Colombia/ Senegal/ Japan
Quarter Finals: England vs Brazil/ Mexico
Semi Finals: England vs Uruguay/ Portugal/ France/ Argentina
It may not be such a terrible thing to actually finish second in the group as the route to the final will look something link this….
Last 16: England vs Colombia/ Senegal/ Japan
Quarter Finals: England vs Sweden/ Switzerland
Semi Finals: England vs Spain/ Russia/ Croatia/ Denmark
Neither routes are going to be particularly easy as there are some great footballing nations in the mix, however, the historical stats show that we have beaten Spain in tournaments more times than we have lost to them and haven't had any recent tournament defeats to any of the other teams lying in wait so finishing 2nd may be a favourable route for us.
Everything will be decided this evening and regardless of the result, we are pushing on to great things.
C'mon England!
