Group G may be widely regarded as this tournaments Group of Death but there can be no denying that Englands Group D is very nearly deserving of that title. Competing against England to earn a place in the round of 16 will be Uruguay, Italy and Chile; all of which are quality teams which will definitely pose a challenge to our boys in Brazil. As mentioned in a previous entry, the expectations that England will emerge from this snake pit are extremely low. Indeed, they are the third favourites to emerge from the group and some callous bookies are even offering odds on England to lose all three games. However, are England really that outclassed by the other teams of Group D? We cant take anything for granted but if they play to their ability, Hodgsons men should be able to comfortably handle Costa Rica, at the very least. Even the combined threat of Uruguay and Italy is arguably being blown out of proportion. Though the Uruguayan offence, spearheaded by the incredibly dangerous duo of Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez (if he even makes the tournament), is a daunting prospect, their defense made up by Diego Lugano (released by WBA) and Sebastian Coates (loaned out by Brendan Rodgers to Nacional) should be overrun by the Englands rapid offence. Similarly, the Italians are being shown too much respect by English fans and naysayers of Hodgsons squad. They may have some exceptional players on paper but in recent times the Italians have looked flat and unimpressive, despite getting to the final of Euro 2012 only 2 years ago. Englands chances of emerging from the group may be better than what many give them credit for and if they are successful, they should be able to play with the confidence they seemed to be lacking in the recent friendlies.
Hailing from South East London, Sam Heard is an aspiring writer and recent graduate from the University of Warwick. Sam's favourite things include energy drinks, late nights spent watching the UFC with his girlfriend and annihilating his friends at FIFA.
