Missed opportunity or lesson learned? England's World Cup journey under the microscope
Sky Sports' Rob Dorsett analyses England's World Cup campaign. Golmetria's model gave them a 93% chance of reaching the quarter-finals — so what went wrong?
A World Cup that could have gone differently. That is the feeling left by England's journey through the tournament — and Sky Sports football correspondent Rob Dorsett, who was alongside the England squad at every stage, holds nothing back in his reflections.
According to Sky Sports, Dorsett takes stock of England's performance and raises the central question: what was left on the table?
The numbers from Golmetria's model help put the weight of the campaign into perspective. England entered the World Cup with a 93% probability of reaching the quarter-finals — one of the tournament's heavy favourites. Getting that far was almost an obligation. Whatever came next was always going to be the hard part.
And that is precisely where the debate lies. With the model pointing to just a 7% chance of lifting the trophy — and market odds implying a probability of around 11% — England were never the outright favourites, but they carried enough expectation that any stumble was bound to hurt.
The question Dorsett leaves hanging in the air is the same one every England supporter will carry into the next World Cup: was this a generation that failed to deliver on its promise, or a team that simply ran into its own limits?
Football has no easy answer to that. But the analysis exists — and it is worth listening to someone who was there.