England’s World Cup qualifying final was a great box-ticking exercise. Gareth Southgate’s team needed to win the away match against San Marino to qualify for the World Cup.
It won 10-0, the first time the side achieved double figures in a competitive match.
Officially, San Marino is ranked No. 2 as the worst football team in the world. It was 210 out of 209. Harry Kane scored four goals, moving from being tied for fourth with Jimmy Greaves on England’s all-time goal-scoring lists to tied for third. It didn’t matter, though.
This is the problem with international football. If your goal is to win major tournaments, then games against countries like San Marino, Albania, Hungary, Poland or USA don’t matter.
Most of the games are irrelevant to who wins the most money. Nobody thinks about what happens when Manchester City, for example, plays against Cheltenham in the FA Cup. It goes down but then wins 3-1 with three late goals.
This is what happened last season. Although Cheltenham was frustrated by City’s performance, the final result showed that City had quality.
Now the match schedule is out for the team for the upcoming Qatar FIFA 2022 Worldcup, and here is what it looks like.
Match 1 – England Vs Iran – 21/11/2022
England vs Iran matches on 21st November 2022. Honestly, Iran is not a match for the English team, but this is what everyone’s gut feeling tells them. One could not imagine what could go wrong with a handsome lineup on the England team side.
If history tells us one thing, sports are full of surprises and when no one expects the unexpected. Chances for the Iran team are slim, but who knows what would happen, keeping in mind the recent poor performance of the England team.
Then again, let’s keep our hopes high and wish for the best.
Match 2 – England Vs USA – 26/11/2022
This is even harder to comment on; it’s the world’s 4th best team pitted against the 15th. The USA currently stands at 15th in soccer, and the odds are not in their favour. That does not matter actually in the game of soccer.
There will always be instances where teams will jump up in rankings quickly and over one match. Well, keeping the spirits high, we wish the American team all the best.
Match 3 – Wales Vs England – 30/11/2022
Now this one can get very exciting; both the teams know each other well in the field. They have played against each other a lot. Now what remains to be seen is how well they fare in the showdown, or should we say the ultimate showdown.
More needs to be seen, and one thing we know for sure. Predictions do fail seriously at times.
