Chelsea don’t have a game for over a month, so plenty of Blues fans will be World Cup betting to distract themselves.
If they’re not sure who to back, they can always have a look at Danny Murphy’s take on things out in Qatar. The former Liverpool midfielder ran the rule over England’s squad, their group and their chances in the tournament overall in his preview of the competition.
Murphy is neither the type to be unrealistically positive and hype up a team, nor is he inclined to be overly negative to attract clicks. He’s a pretty steady Eddie who knows the game at the top level very well, and so he’s exactly the kind of person you want to go to for balanced and measured insight on the tournament.
His prediction for the opening group game against Iran is already out of date – but it was accurate enough to show he knows his stuff. He called a 3-0, and while the final score was 6-2, there were a couple of funny goals either way, and his prediction that the Three Lions would make short work of their opposition was borne out.
His predicted XI for the game was also only out by one player – there was no Conor Gallagher in either side.
It will be interesting to see if his thoughts about the games against USA also prove prescient. He certainly respects them as a decent side, pointing to the ever increasing numbers of Premier League players in their ranks, as well as their exceptional levels of fitness and motivation, which we always see on show at these big international tournaments.
The fact that they’ve drawn their opening game while England won will only ramp up their desperation – you won’t get a more motivated USA team than the one that the Three Lions face on Friday night. That’s going to be a very juicy game.
If Murphy is right, England will go as far as the semi finals – and that feels like a very fair prediction too. The opening day win showed us to be a strong side, but we’re still not expecting the Three Lions to be able to go one better than they have in recent tournaments and actually win the trophy.
On the other hand – if Saudi Arabia can beat Argentina, anything can happen. England only need to get a little luckier than they have been in their last two tournaments to go all the way this time.
