Jermaine Jenas is a pundit and retired English professional footballer. He played as a central midfielder for English club sides Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur.
Jermaine Jenas thinks England can reach the latter stages of the World Cup and would be “disappointed” if Gareth Southgate’s side fail to reach the quarter-finals at a minimum. England have already started positively in Russia, with wins over Tunisia and Panama sealing progression to the knockout rounds, and they face Belgium on Thursday to determine who tops Group G.
“It would be a massive surprise to me if England don’t get to the quarter-finals. The team seem to be in a good place, when we play the tough games, we seem to be able to nullify and take the sting out of those teams. When you look back at the games against Brazil and Germany, we have faced Germany a few times in recent years and people expected us to get beat by a few more, but we have stood strong. I think Southgate can set up his team in that way, to be defensive as well. The only thing that would be disappointing is if we do not at least make the quarter-finals. And anything over that would be a massive success.”