Euphoria erupted throughout England as Gareth Southgate’s side secured their place at the World Cup semi-finals, beating Sweden 2-0.
The fairly facile victory saw England qualify for the last four of the tournament for the first time since 1990, when they famously went out on penalties to Germany.
Croatia stand in the way of Englnad this time around as the central European side defeated the host nation Russia on penalties.
However, RTE football pundit Liam Brady is convinced that the current crop will also fall at the final hurdle and lose Wednesday’s semi-final clash with Croatia.
"I don’t think they are that good to be quite honest," said Brady, speaking on the RTE2 World Cup post-match panel.
"Eight goals from set-pieces," added Brady, highlighting the fact that only three of England’s 11 goals have come from open play.
"Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard and Raheem Sterling are decent players, but they don’t seem to be spectacular players for me.
"We’ve seen Sterling fluff his line a couple of times in front of goal. Croatia will have too much quality for them in the semi-final."
Eamon: "That's a bit begrudging."
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) July 7, 2018
Liam: "I'm not a begrudger. If Croatia win tonight, they'll beat England."
Eamon: "We'll have a big bet on that."
Darragh: "I'm looking forward to seeing you in your waistcoat."#RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/gXLGCzRmVX
Brady believes that England have been handed the ideal draw throughout the World Cup and have yet to come up against quality opposition in the knock-out phases, where they beat Colombia and Sweden.
"The draw has opened up for them. Colombia were average and negative and I thought Sweden were very ordinary, very average opposition," said Brady.
"I think England have had the run of the draw.
"They are nothing to write home about, except being well organised, well-prepared and possessing a good temperament."
Fellow pundit Keith Andrews, however, believes that they are deserving of their place in the last four and expects England to go on to reach this year’s showpiece on 15 July.
"I do think they will reach the final. The way the draw has opened up for them, they have taken advantage," said Andrews.
"Today was a stroll and I genuinely think they are capable of more. They may well get found out against Belgium or France but they deserve to be where they are at this tournament."
And Andrews paid great credit to the management team of Southgate and coach Steve Holland for bring this side together and taking them to the last four.
"Steve Holland knows these players inside out and he has lived through what has gone wrong with English teams in the last twenty years.
"Beckham and Scholes etc, those players were the heroes of this squad growing up and they have seen them fail and crumble with the pressure from the press and the penalty shoot-out situations and they have put that to bed too."
Eamon Dunphy concurred with Andrews and heaped praise on the England management.
"This is a great achievement from Gareth Southgate and Steve Holland.
"You think of all the wonderful England players, John Terry, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney. They have had some wonderful, wonderful players.
"But this group don’t have anyone apart from Harry Kane. They are just a group and I think he has cultivated this and created a culture and they are a really good story."
And Dunphy took a certain amount of umbrage from Brady’s comments on England’s achievement.
"I have nothing against winning games from set-pieces. Look at John Terry at Chelsea and Frank Lampard. Mourinho’s teams. You can win the Champions League with a set-piece.
"That's a bit begrudging," said Dunphy in relation to Brady’s words.
"I'm not a begrudger," replied Brady.
"If Croatia win tonight, they'll beat England."
"We'll have a nice big bet on that," laughed Dunphy.
