Short memories. There wasn’t much crap about the last World Cup in Brazil.
Spain 1 Netherlands 5, Brazil 1 Germany 7, the performances of Colombia and James Rodriguez, Costa Rica punching above their weight, Suarez getting his teeth into opponents again. Lots of memorable moments. Fans seem to judge World Cups based on England’s performance hence the misty-eyed opinion of the 1990 World Cup which was a turgid affair. I’ll agree that 2006 and 2010 weren’t the most memorable though.
I really don’t know who’ll win this one. Germany aren’t as strong as they were last time out so there is a gap there – maybe Brazil or France? As an outside chance, I’d go with Spain. Despite La Liga being somewhat weaker than it used to be, I think there is plenty of firepower in that Spanish squad to make in-roads. They navigated a qualifying group with Italy, have a lot of players in the 25-32 year old category and could be a dark horse. Beat Portugal in the group stage and we’ll see how they go.
England? Quarters and no further.