England finished 2014 with 6 consecutive Wins

England concluded 2014 with six consecutive victories after a 3-1 win over Slovenia, who were seen as the major contenders for the top spot in the group. Danny Welbeck continued his impeccable form for England after scoring two more goals.

Thus, he managed to outshine Wayne Rooney, who opened the scoring against the Slovenians in the second half with a penalty. Since moving to Arsenal in the summer, Welbeck has been playing in his preferred central position. Even though he has not been prolific for the gunners, his form with England has been very good. The 24-year-old took his England tally to 13 goals in 32 international matches. Read More

HODGSON BACKS ENGLAND

England manager Roy Hodgson has stated that he is confident that the team will do well at the upcoming World Cup 2014. The national team has failed to deliver expectations in the previous major tournaments. They have not won a World Cup since 1966. Even though the English are nowhere near enough to being considered as favourites, Hodgson believes that the team will have a good World Cup since he is seeing a lot of promising signs over the last few months. Hodgson himself has not spoken about England lifting the trophy, but he is confident of giving a good account in Brazil.

England have not managed to get past the quarter-finals of a major tournament in recent decades. Even reaching the semifinals will be considered as a great achievement for this team especially considering that there are several youngsters in the squad. The Golden generation of Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes, and Frank Lampard is almost over. England will be up against Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Italy in the group stages. This is seen as one of the tough groups since Uruguay and Italy will be the favourites to qualify.

England recently achieved a positive result by winning their friendly match against Denmark whereas all other group opponents lost their friendly matches.

“I think everyone is excited by this tournament. I think everyone’s quite excited by the fact that this is an England team in transition at the moment and there are some very interesting players who could be involved. I think we will be very well supported, not only in Brazil but back here in England as well, wherever the games are being shown. So I’m sure the players will do their best and I’m very confident that we’ll come away from the tournament having given a good account of ourselves,” said the 66-year-old.