Despite Wednesday’s victory over Slovenia, which has ensured a nail-biting last 16 face off with old rivals Germany, the most successful European team left in the tournament, the British public’s hopes are down for the England football team.
Following the completion of the group stages, only four percent of World Cup fans think that England will win the World Cup, next to 38% who think Argentina will win, and 23% who feel Brazil are most likely to win. Even more damningly, 78% think England were simply ‘lucky’ to progress into the knockout stage from their group. Only one in five (20%) think they did not rely on luck to do so.
Looking at the ratings of England’s group stage performance, it’s easy to see why faith in England’s chances has fallen so low. Only eight percent of football fans felt England’s performances were fairly or very good. While 34% thought they were average, a worrying 57% thought they were poor.
Unsurprisingly, it seems that everyone who said they were fans of the World Cup had an opinion; the survey found that zero percent (to the nearest whole point) of fans do not know who they think will win the tournament.
So who is to blame for the disillusionment of a nation? Not Capello. Despite coming under criticism for his tactics during the group stages, two thirds (66%) think the coach has done a good job, compared to 25% who think he has done a bad job to some degree. Over half (55%) of World Cup fans think Rooney has been the most disappointing player, the next most disappointing being Green with eight percent of the fans’ vote.
England’s match against Germany, will surely be gluing many to their screens come Sunday. It seems that for many, it will take a stellar performance from Rooney and the boys to rekindle the British belief in the beautiful game.
