Posted by Rafael Gonzales

It may be a bit of hopeful thinking on our behalf, but we here at World Football Daily have been saying it since the draw that England will likely surprise much of the footballing world come this Summer in Brazil.  Roy Hodgson and the Three Lions have a tough group in Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica, but their schedule may set up perfectly to maximize points and shock fans from all over.

Of course, England will be crossing their fingers when it comes to their stars staying healthy heading into the tournament, but hopes are high that a healthy Jack Wilshere will be back in form just at the right time, along with English stalwarts like Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Joe Hart who are all competing in an incredibly entertaining title chase in the English Premier League.  If Roy has a healthy pool of players to choose from, they should be able to pull off some impressive results come Brazil 2014.

England start things off in the Amazonian city of Manaus where they meet Italy, the team that knocked them out of the European Championships in 2012.  Now everyone knows that Italy is a perennial powerhouse when it comes to international footballing competitions,  but we can all agree that generally, Italy comes out of the gates a little slow and tend not to peak until later in the knock out rounds.  So the fact England get them right off the bat is a boon for them.  Plus, Italy are struggling to let go of their old guard with the likes of Captain and Keeper Gianluigi Buffon and Midfield Maestro Andrea Pirlo and the lack of consistency coming from their younger talents means that England should come away with a draw at minimum.  Don’t be surprised though if Roy’s men come away with all three points from this encounter though.

The second World Cup group stage match for England comes in the form of Uruguay.  Although Luis Suarez is lighting it up for Liverpool this season in the English Premier League, this may also be the reason why England can capitalize on this encounter.  Nearly everyone from the England camp are familiar with the Uruguayan striker and that means they should also be familiar with his habits and tendencies up top too.  That doesn’t mean they will be able to shut Suarez down, but this may be the game the gets Luis in trouble in the referee’s book as England players push all the right buttons to get Suarez doing all the wrong things.  Don’t be surprised if England win this match.

The final match of the group stages for England is against the Ticos of Costa Rica.  Although they looked decent in the Hexagonal qualifying rounds of CONCACAF, you can attribute that to the Mexicans and the Americans failing to play at the top of their level.  We’re not saying that CONCACAF hasn’t raised the bar a bit in terms of competition, but Costa Rica should be a nice way to wrap up the group stages for England and they should come away with all three points here.

Are we saying that England could come away with a perfect group stage showing? Well, yes we are. Inspite of the odds favoring to Italy in their first match which we can see at William Hill: http://sports.williamhill.com/bet/en-gb/events/england-world-cup-betting/, we still believe that England will top the group and with Italy following behind them. We strongly feel that they will win all the three games in the group stages.