(Original post by sr90)
Winning a mickey mouse friendly is completely different to the real thing. England haven't beaten a half decent team in a major tournament since 2002. That isn't going to change next summer.
LOL dude I'm not super pro-England. I consider myself a realistic one.
I'm aware England haven't won a trophy for 47 years, while they haven't made a semi-final for 17 years. I'd say there's about 3 teams in Europe that England would struggle against (Germany, Italy, Spain), while another 3/4 who I'd say England have a 50% chance against (Netherlands, France, Portugal and Belgium to a lesser extent) although Portugal I'd say are most likely to beat England if Ronaldo turns up. Then there's like a few other teams who I expect England to beat but will be difficult ( like Russia, Croatia).
In South America I'd say Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and Chile could all beat England, while I think Argentina's defensive weakness would mean that I'd give England a slightly better chance of beating them if they sit back and play on the break.
South Korea and Japan play good football too while possibly ivory Coast could cause the most problems out of the African teams.
All in all, we're looking at 10-15 teams that England could get stuck against so I'm in no way saying England have a great chance here. They should accept a quarter final place and would be fortunate to get to a semi-final. At the semi-finals, you're probably going to have to beat Spain, Germany, Italy or Brazil and England's chances of winning a quarter and semi-final are 5% at best. Getting to the semi-final I'd say England's chances are 20% at best.
With Belgium, let's put things into reality here. Belgium did well to come out of their group , but this is their first World Cup in 12 years. Their group was difficult considering how relatively recently they've become a good team. Saying that, I would expect England to have qualified from their group. England beat Croatia comfortably in 2010 WC qualifiers, and I'd expect England to beat Serbia too.
Belgium lost two friendlies in a row at home to Colombia and Japan, as well as drawing at home to France a a few months back. France and to a lesser extent Colombia are arguably stronger than the teams in their World Cup qualifying group. If Belgium didn't perform in those games, what makes you think they'd roll over England. When Belgium played England last year, they played pretty much their first team and England beat them convincingly enough.
Belgium are a good team no doubt, but to say they've got a better chance than England is silly since this is their first international tournament for 12 years. The toughest teams they have faced in the past 18 months are France, England and Colombia and they didn't win any of those games. A quarter-final would be good for them, although anything further is going to rely on a favourable quarter final draw which I can't see for them either.
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