England "fall short" once again - but will the 2026 World Cup go down as a successful tournament for the Three Lions?

Ahead of England's 2026 World Cup third-placed playoff against France, Sports Mole's Football Editor Matt Law discusses the Three Lions' tourney arsenic a whole.

Matt Law, Football Editor: "Football is ever astir context"

Football is ever astir discourse - you look astatine who we've beaten. The Mexico crippled was iconic, a crippled that volition everlastingly beryllium remembered for loads of reasons. 

Was it a large performance? Probably not - it was much of a gutsy performance. Were England large against Norway? Probably not, and somewhat fortunate to get done that game. 

The Ghana crippled was truly poor; Panama were rather mediocre arsenic well. Congo, Mexico, Norway - 3rd clip retired you travel up against the satellite champions, a truly bully side, and you travel up short. 

On paper, if they decorativeness third, it would beryllium their second-best World Cup ever, and that tin surely beryllium taken. 

Can we accidental it's been a success? If you'd said astatine the commencement of the tourney that England would scope the semifinals, astir radical would astir apt accidental that's rather good. 

I didn't ever expect England to triumph it. I hoped they would aft the past fewer rounds, and earlier the Argentina crippled I truly thought they had a truly bully chance. 

But conscionable reaching the semi-finals is bully - dive deeper into the facts, they've beaten teams they should person beaten, past travel up against a truly bully broadside and fallen short. 

We've work this communicative before, and we hoped it had a antithetic ending this time. I'm 50/50: semi-finals connected insubstantial is good, but look deeper and it falls abbreviated again.

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