SAMARA: Enthused by an exciting young squad and a potentially kind draw against Sweden in Saturday’s quarter-final, England fans are starting to believe they can end a 52-year wait to win the World Cup.
But the obdurate Scandinavians have a habit of upsetting the odds, particularly against England, having lost just one of eight previous competitive meetings.
Confidence in England is soaring after the team ended a long wait to win a World Cup penalty shootout, squeezing past Colombia in a tense and bad-tempered last-16 tie in Moscow.
“We’d like to bring it home,” said England defender John Stones. “I’d love to win a World Cup, England would love to win a World Cup. It’s been a long time since we last won it. We want to make people proud back home.”
England, World Cup winners on home soil in 1966, have already won over a public disaffected by an early exit in Brazil four years ago and an embarrassing defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016.
Gareth Southgate’s men have been drawing more viewers for their matches in Russia than May’s royal wedding, with 23.6 million tuning in for the shootout against Colombia.