(Reuters) – Following is a statbox on England at the World Cup.
FIFA Ranking: 5
Odds: 7-1
Previous tournaments:
England will be taking part in their 16th World Cup since they made their tournament debut in 1950. Their best performance came in 1966 when they won the tournament on home soil after beating West Germany in the final.
Since then it has been a regular tale of overly high expectations not being matched by actual performances, although they have come close on a couple of occasions.
They reached the semi-finals in Italy in 1990, losing to Germany on penalties, then in 2018 they again reached the last four but went down to Croatia.
England failed to qualify in 1974, 1978 and 1994.
How they qualified:
England breezed through a World Cup qualifying group which included makeweights San Marino and Andorra, going unbeaten in 10 matches with eight wins and two draws to seal automatic qualification last year.
They wrapped up their qualifying campaign with a 10-0 hammering of lowly San Marino as captain Harry Kane finished top scorer in the group with 12 goals.
England’s draws came away to Poland and at home to Hungary.
Form guide:
After securing World Cup qualification, England have suffered a spectacular collapse in form, going six competitive games without a victory.
They failed to win a match in their Nations League campaign in a group with Italy, Hungary and Germany.
England drew three and lost three — including twice against Hungary — to finish bottom of the group, suffering the humiliation of relegation to League B.
A 4-0 defeat by Hungary in June was England’s worst at home in 94 years, piling pressure on manager Gareth Southgate.
There were signs of life, however, in their last match before the World Cup as they hit back from 2-0 down against Germany to lead before drawing a thriller 3-3.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman in London; Editing by Ken Ferris)
