London — England will arrive at the Fifa World Cup in Russia without the noisily optimistic drumbeats that often accompany them to major tournaments. Years of underachievement and disappointment have doused any serious hope among supporters and jingoistic media that England will finally emulate the feats of 1966 and win the World Cup. Statistically, they remain one of the major teams most likely to qualify for tournaments but least likely to win one. Unbeaten in qualifiers for major tournaments since 2009, they have won only six knock-out games of international football since that day Bobby Moore lifted the Jules Rimet trophy at Wembley. It is now 12 years since they beat Ecuador to reach the World Cup quarterfinals where they lost to Portugal on penalties, a familiar English fate.
Their last two major tournaments have been disastrous, with exit in the group stages in Brazil in 2014 followed by defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016, a result that pitched the team to an historic low a...
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