England at the 20It's time to introduce

It's time to introduce England, the next representative of Group B at the World Cup in Qatar.

England

England is one of the four parts of Great Britain, along with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In the popular mind, however, "English" and "British" are synonymous. Once an empire that stretched across the globe, possessing numerous colonies, today nevertheless remains one of the most influential states in the world.

Thriftiness and primness, five-o-clock-tea and lunch, Big Ben and the royal cult, Monty Python and Mr. Bean, the Beatles and Elton John: that's England. Or Britain.

And sport is no exception: British athletes excel in all kinds of sports. As for soccer, the England is its birthplace. And that is why this game here is more than a game. Suffice it to say that in the English soccer pyramid there are 24 levels - from the stars of first magnitude like Ronaldo and Holand to the boring amateurs with shortness of breath, racing a ball somewhere in the Sunday league before going to the pub together.

The England national soccer team.

This is one of the two oldest teams in the world: November 30, 1872, it played in a friendly match with Scotland, and this match is the first in the history of soccer, which is recognized by FIFA.

True, the relationship with the International Football Federation in Britain has been difficult, resulting in 1928-1946, all the national teams from FIFA withdrew. Hence the debut of the England national team at the World Cup did not take place until 1950.

And in 1966, the English were the winners of the home World Cup. The final against West Germany is still the subject of debate. Then Alf Ramsay's charges won 3:2, all three goals were scored by Geoffrey Hurst, but in the case of the winning goal, perhaps, the ball did not completely cross the goal line. Now everyone would be judged by VAR, but back then the Soviet assistant referee, Tofik Bakhramov, was in charge. He pointed out that there was a goal, and forever turned into an anti-hero for the German fans.

It is surprising that, having a strong championship and never lacking in talented players, England never won anything else. In 1990, the English climbed to fourth place and then, if they ever made it to the finals, they were knocked out in the quarterfinals at best. That spell was broken in 2018 in Russia: in the group stage, the Lions beat Tunisia (2-1) and Panama (6-1) and lost to Belgium (0-1) to finish second in the group. Then there was the hardest victory in the 1/8 finals over Colombia (1-1, 4-3), then a 2-0 victory against Sweden in the quarterfinals. However, in the semifinals the English lost to the Croats 1:2 in extra time, and in the match for the bronze they again failed to cope with the Belgians - 0:2. The only consolation was the fact that Harry Kane with 6 goals became the best sniper of the 2018 World Cup.

The English have also had no luck at European Championships: two bronzes (1968, 1996), one silver (2021) - and no gold.

England's national team stars.

This is a list with no end in sight. Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, defenders John Stones, Eric Dyer, Luke Shaw, Kyle Walker, Harry Maguire, midfielders Jordan Henderson, Mason Mount, Jesse Lingard, Kelvin Phillips, strikers Harry Kane, Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford. Not only does this sound like music - but the English are pretty good right now. At last year's European Championship, it was a team with a combination of a powerful attack and very tough defense - and it quite deserved the gold, except that the Italians were a little better, moreover, in the penalty shootout.

Group B opponents.

United States, Iran, Wales.

England team performance forecast

The English team should not stumble at anyone in the group, although there will obviously be no easy matches. Today's England team is capable of reaching the medals of the World Cup.