Belgium had a mighty lucky escape last night against Japan but I am going to say on the balance of things they deserved to go through anyway, they have an amazing counter attacking prowess and it was on full display with 30 seconds left last night before extra time.

Will the England team share a similar fate tonight and produce a Great Escape? Will we bow out with egg on our faces? Will we produce a memorable victory against somewhat of an unknown entity in the form of Columbia? For me Columbia are a hit and miss team. In their friendlies before the World Cup they managed to beat France away and but came up short against Australia and and Egypt where they dominated but didn't score.

They came out of the group stages reasonably unscathed with their highlight being a 3-0 win against Poland but in their first game they were deservedly beaten against Japan (though they had to play with 10 men for almost all the match). So they won't roll over like Panama did in England's 6-1 thrashing. Beyond Columbia we will most likely face a resolute and organised Sweden which are hard to break down but lack any real fire power up front. I can see us beating both these teams 1-0 or 2-1 each but I approach those predictions with caution - in particular the Columbia game - afterall look what has happened to so many arguably better teams (atleast on paper).

But what about the Semi's and the Finals, well I have to say the head in the sand syndrome could happily continue through to the final. What I mean by this is England can take great comfort in not having to face any real stiff competition to proceed even past the Semi's now to the final. I was peering down our half of the table believing a show down with Spain would be destined in the Semi Finals until Russia managed to knock them out on penalties. This has left England to face Russia or Croatia in the Semi's. Croatia did not look convincing against a well organised Denmark, they had a lucky escape.

For me as an England fan this part of the draw couldn't have gone more our way if we drew teams out of a hat 100 times over. We will never get a better chance at making another World Cup final in my life time and I believe the same goes for these young players in their 20's. This is an amazing opportunity to not just make a final but show the stronger teams that have exited how you really beat weaker opposition. It starts by not getting complacent, it ends with playing the sort of direct football we are known for instead of leaving things too late and playing Russian Roulette like Spain.

The problem about actually winning the world cup lies in the fact we are likely to face France, Brazil or Belgium. All these teams have real strength and are arguably better than this young and naive England team. We would have to play one hell of a game to stand a chance to beat either of these three. So can England win the world cup and dare we dream? 

Of course we can, but we won't be able to rely on hiding in the softer part of the table when it eventually came to wanting to follow in the footsteps of the England legends from 1966. If we got to the final that match would certainly separate the men from the boys.