World Cup

Alan Shearer: 'England cannot start plotting route to World Cup final'

By Giuseppe Labellarte, Reporter | 30 June 2018

Alan Shearer insists that fans cannot follow the "arrogant" philosophy of England plotting their way to the latter stages of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Alan Shearer has criticised the "arrogant" school of thought suggesting that England can plot their way to the latter stages of the World Cup.

The Three Lions finished second in Group G following their 1-0 loss to Belgium on Thursday, Adnan Januzaj scoring a second-half winner for the Red Devils.

Ahead of the game, there were suggestions that neither team particularly wanted to finish first as the Group G winner would face either Brazil or Mexico in the quarter-finals, while the other team would play Sweden or Switzerland.

Speaking ahead of the last-16 tie against Colombia, England legend Shearer has urged people not to get ahead of themselves in assuming that any of the three teams in the first two knockout stages will be easy to beat.

"I don't think we can start picking and plotting our route to the final and say we only have to beat Sweden or Switzerland in the quarter-finals and we are in the last four," Shearer told BBC Sport.

"With our record at major tournaments, how on earth can we be so arrogant to look ahead like that, or think we will roll anyone over?

"England have won two knockout games at World Cups since 1990 - against Denmark in 2002 and Ecuador in 2006 - so, before we get carried away, let's deal with Colombia first."

England were famously beaten 2-1 by Iceland - then ranked 34th in the world - in the last 16 of Euro 2016.