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Published 14:53 1 Jul 2018 BST
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This is the narrative many supporters of the England team have told themselves over the past few days. Gary Neville said following the defeat to Belgium that England should be very positive about their chances of reaching the semi-finals of the tournament. Paul Merson told Sky Sports that he would be "shocked" if England do not reach the last-four and that Colombia are a "poor" side. The old adage of taking it game by game seems to have been discarded.
There are just a few problems with the theory that England have a semi-final place sewn up.
Some perspective and a couple of home truths are badly needed to counter-balance the hype. Luckily, Alan Shearer is on hand to speak some sense about England and their World Cup hopes.
The former England captain said that the current side shouldn't fear any of the teams still in the tournament, but they also shouldn't get "carried away" and be so "arrogant" to start plotting a route to the final on July 15.
"Before the World Cup started, I saw the quarter-finals as a realistic aim, and a decent performance by a young team too, and us being in what some people perceive to be the easier half of the draw does not make a difference to either," Shearer told the BBC.
"I also 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. 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 play Colombia on Tuesday in the final last-16 tie before the quarter-finals begin on Friday. Southgate's side are talented and in good form. The match against Colombia should be an even contest, and neither side can afford to look past it to the quarter-finals or beyond.
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