GrinWithoutaKat wrote:I know it's probably too early, but I can't really see it as overachieving when they haven't beaten anyone ranked higher than them. Nobody expected them to get to a semi final, but are you really telling me at the start of the tournament nobody would have expected them to beat Tunisia, Panama and Sweden? Let's be honest, they would have expected to beat Croatia too, a team ranked below them like all the others. People are acting like going out to Iceland is the norm, but it's not. Defeats to Italy/Uruguay put them out of 2014, Italy in 2012, Germany in 2010, Portugal in 2006 and 2004, teams ranked higher than them.
We can talk about it being a young team and a bright future, but I can't see them ever getting a run of games this nice again.
I think criticism of this match is fine(and no matter how well they’ve done, no team or individual should be above criticism), because England were terribly limp for a large chunk of it, but it was a very promising tournament from a group of players who, if they can find a bit of a creative spark, could do very well at Euro 2018. There’s a lot of positives to take from this World Cup, so nobody should be too disheartened.
