I think you might be being a bit harsh on old England, as a bitter Scotsman I hope they don't win it but they're really starting to churn out a high standard of player, I think the foreign managers they've brought in(pep and so on) have really helped them modernise the tactics and smarten the players up(la liga has had less famous names but have won a lot of uefa cups and champions league for example) ... Foreign teams are scouting around picking up young British guys(bayern and dortmund the most obvious).... I think it's only a matter of time before England win something big...
Although I agree the English media really do overrate team and probably add to the pressure.
I too was also not amazed by Englands performance in the world cup, it was a pretty similar situation to Germany in 2002(except they actually made it to the final)... But still they beat the guys they needed to to make it to the semis and you can't knock it too much and it was three years ago. The media and fans still seem to be stuck in a bit of old fashioned football mindset (not as bad as the scots though) but once they work that out the gits could end up like Spain :S..... The spainards were also pretty big underachievers until 2008(bar a win in the 60s) at the national level...
Another good sign for England is that none of the big teams have looked great at all, Portugal were looking really good but haven't been that convincing v guys like Ukraine. Germany and the Dutch have been straight up bad recently. France might be coming into some form but you really can't trust the French not to do something stupid. Spain haven't been great either...
Anyway as for who will win I'm going with Belgium although de bruyne suffered a pretty bad injury and I've got no idea if he'll play, he'd be a massive loss for them.
I think Italy will surprise a few people, they won't win it because they're not that good but they've got a few talented and determined players(midget barella I think is good and insigne).. Italy to struggle in the groups then make the semis!


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