England’s route to the World Cup Final 2018

How England may reach 2018 World Cup Final

Trippier - Lingard (England)
Trippier - Lingard (England) © GEPA pictures

With Gareth Southgate selecting a fairly young England squad for the 2018 World Cup, optimism among English fans will once again be high. The Three Lions have had some miserable performances in recent major tournaments, and therefore they should be due to deliver a bit of cheer for their fans. Of course, things don’t always work out that way, but with England having a reasonable chance of making progress past the group stage, it is always worth looking ahead to see what they may crash into when it comes to the knockout stages of the tournament since it would be still a long route to the World Cup Final 2018 for England.

Table of Contents

Two years ago at Euro 2016 England were embarrassed by plucky Iceland in the knockout phase of the tournament. Out in Russia this summer they will have the chance to put all that behind them with a confident run at Russia 2018. What would be deemed as a success for England at this summer’s World Cup? That’s hard to gauge, but a realistic target has to be a quarter-final place.

Can England get that far? Can they go even further than that? There we take a look at England’s World Cup group stage and the path that they could take in potentially reaching the final.

England group stage

England are not favourites to win their World Cup group stage. They are at 11/8 odds second favourites* (Betting Odds taken from Bet365 at 10:04 p.m. on May 28th, 2018) behind Belgium in that particular contest, but looking beyond the first stage it probably isn’t going to matter too much whether or not England actually manage to beat the Red Devils to the top spot in the group. England’s opening game at the World Cup is on

  • Monday, June 18 when they face Tunisia,

and then they will face minnows Panama who are making their World Cup debut, on June 24.

Those are games are England should be winning, and the Three Lions are odds-on favourites in each of those matches. Their big test in the group stage is going to come in the final round of matches when they face fellow European nation Belgium. The Three Lions do have a fantastic head-to-head record against the Red Devils, but ahead of the big kick-off in the tournament

(Betting Odds taken from Bet365 at 10:04 p.m. on May 28th, 2018) for that particular fixture. The thing is both England and Belgium could be sat on six points ahead of that clash so with qualification booked, it may not even be the full-on contest that could be.

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How England’s route to the World Cup Final 2018 continues

Once the group stage will have been successfully mastered the real thrill just begins. This is where the nerds step in who can tell the possible match constellations that will follow now. For this it is essential to know exactly the World Cup Fixtures and tournament table and also what is going on the other groups.

England round of 16

The Three Lions should make their way out of the group without too much fuss or other. If they do get the chance to rest key players against Belgium that probably wouldn’t be a bad thing. In the round of 16 England will play somebody from Group H which contains Poland, Senegal, Columbia and Japan. That Group H is such a hard group to read because Poland, Senegal and Columbia all fairly evenly matched.

So is pretty much just potluck who there are going to get, and it is why it’s not particularly important for England to worry too much about winning their group. Looking at the Group H odds, Columbia are the favourites and if things go to form and follow the bookmaker odds where England finish second in their group, then it would most likely be Columbia that they faced in the round of 16.

However, Columbia are not particularly in a good place at the moment and will come under pressure from both Poland and Senegal. Really whoever England go up against in that round, is likely to be a fairly even contest and that means England should be able to handle themselves and potentially move on through to the quarter-finals.

(Betting Odds taken from Bet365 at 10:04 p.m. on May 28th, 2018) to get eliminated in the round of 16.

England Quarter Finals

England’s path to the World Cup final is going to get very tough at this stage more likely than not. The two big teams hovering around the bottom half of the draw are Brazil and Germany and if those two respectively win their groups and occupy two of the four quarter-final places in the bottom half of the draw then England are going to be up against a tough opponent in the quarter-final.

Here’s how it could pan out. If England finishes second in their group then that would put them on a route to meet Germany in the quarter-final stage and if they were to win their group then it would likely mean that they have to try and deal with Brazil in a quarter-final tie. So going back to our early premise about it not being important whether England actually wins their group or not, this is the main reason why because either way they aren’t likely to avoid major hurdle in the quarter-finals.

(Betting Odds taken from Bet365 at 10:04 p.m. on May 28th, 2018) to get eliminated in the quarter-finals.

England Semi Finals

Let’s imagine that fantastic scenario of England making it to the final four of Russia 2018. It is more than probable that they would have already come through a tough quarter-final match, and then expectations on them would be through the roof for having done that. If England are on the runners-up route from their group stage then it would potentially be Spain that they go up against in the semi finals. If they were to make their way through as group winners, which could mean potentially that they are the ones who knocked Brazil out of the tournament, then their semi-final opponents would most likely be, France.

How well could England handle themselves against the Spaniards or French? While they would be heavy underdogs in either of those contests, the Three Lions would basically have nothing to lose at this stage because they would have already exceeded expectations. But what if? What if they could just go out one extra step?

(Betting Odds taken from Bet365 at 10:04 p.m. on May 28th, 2018) to reach the World Cup final 2018.

England World Cup final

So after a long and exhausting and successful campaign through the knockout stages, England’s route to the World Cup 2018 final could be accomplished. The most likely opponent there would be dependent on whether England did actually win the group right back at the first round. If they were to go through the route of runners-up, they would likely have beaten Germany in the quarter-finals, and then Spain in the semi finals and it would potentially put them up against Brazil final.

If England won their group and made their way through the knockout stages, they would likely have the time Brazil in the quarter-finals and then France in the semi finals. So going that route then would leave their most likely opponent to be either Germany or Spain. England are 18/1 odds* (Betting Odds taken from Bet365 at 10:04 p.m. on May 28th, 2018) to win the World Cup outright.

England top goalscorer market

If England are going to have a successful campaign then they are going to need a goalscoring hero through. Who is that likely to be? Well, the answer looks to be pretty simple in its being

(Betting Odds taken from Bet365 at 10:04 p.m. on May 28th, 2018) to be England’s top goalscorer at the World Cup 2018. England aren’t exactly blessed with big scoring threats in their squad.

Gareth Southgate is taking

  • Marcus Rashford (9/1),
  • Raheem Sterling (6/1),
  • Jamie Vardy (8/1) and
  • Danny Welbeck*

(Betting Odds taken from Bet365 at 10:04 p.m. on May 28th, 2018) as the backups to Kane. Sterling did have a fantastic season with Manchester City but he, along with any input from Marcus Rashford is going to be seen as a backup to supporting Kane.

Jamie Vardy does look great option to have to come off the bench if needed, his pace and finishing could really trouble defences in the latter stages of games. But the Leicester man or anyone else for that matter in the England squad is likely to beat Kane in the quest to be England’s top World Cup goalscorer in the summer.