Staggering run of luck without a convincing performance and 1 goal from open play. So freakish they might actually win it. Pre tournament if any team was offered
Beat tunisia
Beat panama
Lose to belgium with a weakened team
Beat colombia
Beat sweden
Beat Croatia
To get to the world cup final they would have thought no way is such a simple route realistic.
One thing that is very irritating is the narrative being pushed that they are somehow some rag tag bunch of youngsters. They have one of the most expensive sides in the tournament. It is a seasoned premier league line up. Pickford is one of the most expensive keepers ever, walker and stones play for city and cost over 100m, young and lingard play for united and 3 more starters are part of tottenhams core and 1 is the liverool captain. Its very typical of the British press to take things to extremes of good or bad.
Is it though? I haven't gone to check all squads but it would seem our squad value is inflated by a few players (especally the Man City ones). Otherwise:
The 5 Spurs players cost a combined £13.5 million
The 3 keepers cost about £30 million
The 4 Man City players cost about £160
Liverpool's 2 cost £20 million
Leicester's 2 cost £13 million
Chelsea's 2 cost £7 million
Man Utd's 4 cost £32 million
Arsenal's 1 £16 million
Man City most likely makes us an outlier, otherwise I think that is really quite reasonable.
They're not a rag tag bunch of youngsters, most of them play for top teams for sure. It is fact though that we are the 3rd youngest squad in the competition and also have the squad with the least total number of caps.
And such routes do sometimes happen (if we even manage to get past Sweden and Croatia/ Russia). Germany did it in 2002 and I'm sure none of their fans cared a jot. Would be a great experience for this group of players to make it even to a semi, let alone a final, as I'd hope by 2022, some of the players from the youth generation that have won so much recently will have made it into the squad as well.