Re: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread

In my opinion, England has never been a bad team. They’ve always had elite players and were often among the favorites to win. Croatia knocked them out in the 2018 semifinals, Italy beat them in the euro final, and France eliminated them in Qatar in 2022. When you look at their squad, it’s full of top class players who play for the best clubs, but the chemistry and the coach’s choices have never really worked well together. They are still a quality team, but whether they can prove themselves now we’ll see. They are the favorites in the group, but i still think Croatia will be a tough challenge for them.

England maybe a very strong team. But ever since I started watching the FIFA World Cup in 1998, I can't recall England being the favourite team to lift the trophy in any of the editions. At times other European teams such as France, Germany and even Italy received that honour. But England never reached quite there. But one thing that I would admit is that England has been very successful in maintaining the quality. At least that has been the case when compared to teams such as Italy and Belgium. And this time they have Croatia, Ghana and Panama for company.

That is because the quality bar was extremely high at that time. And there were a lot of teams that could actually win the World Cup: Brazil of course, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands are the other main competitors, then there were Argentina and England but also Croatia and Uruguay, without forgetting Portugal and Spain. It was really difficult to predict who could win because there were so many good teams!

Now we only have Spain, France and Argentina. And if I had to bet on the winner Spain would be my first choice, France the second. I don't think Argentina can win again playing with a 39-year-old Messi.

France and Spain generally always play good football. The Netherlands too , really strong teams. But like you said, if I had to bet on a winner, i’d go with Portugal. If Messi managed to do it, i think Cristiano can as well. Just imagine how important this world cup would be for him. Sure, he’s not in the same form he once was, but i think he can still lead the team to the very top, just like he did at the Euros. Of course, it’s a team effort, but with him leading the way. I’m not saying this as a hardcore Ronaldo fan, but i’d honestly be happy to see him crown his career with a world cup