Poll: Are England Euro 2016 winners? Or group stage fodder?
Published:
Whether you are a pessimist or an optimist regarding England’s national team, one must doff their cap to Roy Hodgson’s side as they progress to Euro 2016 in perfect fashion.
In bagging 10 wins from 10 matches, the Three Lions achieved a feat that only five sides have done before in maintaining a perfect record throughout the preliminaries of a European Championship.
So now with friendlies against France and Spain in the near future, thoughts will turn as to how far England can go when they make the trip across the Channel next summer.
Ladbrokes make Roy’s boys 10/1 shots to lift the trophy and claim a first tournament triumph – no, we’re not including ‘Le Tournoi’ – since the 1966 World Cup.
The last nation to enter the ‘100 per cent club’ were Spain in qualifying for the 2012 tournament in Poland and Ukraine. Iker Casillas and Co went on to win the whole thing that time, so could that be a good omen for England?
However a step back is needed when we discover that two of the other four nations to enter the competition on the back of unblemished records went out in the group stages – France in 1992 and Czech Republic in 2000.
That being said, with only the bottom side in the six groups, as well as the two third-placed teams with the least points exiting at the earliest stage, failing to progress is simply not an option.
The quarter finals have been the final resting place for the last two England sides to compete at the Euros, and even that would now seem like an underachievement considering the way qualifying has gone.
How far Hodgson’s side actually go next year is up in the air, until the draw for the finals is made in December.
But in the meantime, we are asking you, the Ladbrokes News readers, to tell us how it will go.
Vote now in today’s poll and let us know how far England will go in the tournament next June.
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All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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