Mourinho predicts one of the teams to reach final

In fairness to Powell he got four more caps. Had things gone to plan for England, though, he would not even have been in charge in Russian Federation.

Vardy was unlikely to be ready to face the Swedes after sitting out training on Thursday, Southgate added. He had made an appearance for England’s Under 21s and by the time Southgate picked him Leicester City had paid £17million for him. “Against Argentina [in the last 16], he made an assist for Mbappe and we need this sort of supporting play. It was a little bit sloppy at the end of the second half, we felt it was a bit too open”.

That goal was the eighth England had scored from set pieces at this World Cup, more than any other side in the competition. Maguire, as much as any member of this England squad, did the hard yards in the lower echelons of English football.

The Belgian FA would have no problem with Roberto Martinez taking over as Spain coach if he guides Belgium to the World Cup this summer, FA president Gerard Linard has suggested. He’s better than John Stones when it comes to passing it out from the back. England have the best odds on their side of the bracket, but still trail Belgium and France as tournament favorites.

Throughout this tournament Sweden has also thrived as the underdog.

This particular group of Belgian players have always been talked up and De Bruyne has his eyes set on making the most of this opportunity.

It does, nevertheless, reflect best of all on Southgate.

“There are more people coming over, I know people that are coming over now”, he said.

Fans are still wondering what their new shirt will look like.

Sweden, devoid of a freescoring talisman in the wake of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s worldwide retirement, have worked hard on being difficult to breakdown and a major threat from set-pieces.

Left-back Ashley Young and fellow defender Kyle Walker, who were substituted having seemed to be suffering from cramp in the shootout win over the Colombians, were both fine.

World Cup fever in England will not extend to weddings round the country on Saturday with those tempted to glance at their mobile phones during the match with Sweden facing a red card.

Andres Granqvist is a busy man at the moment: not only is the 33-year Sweden captain putting the finishing touches to preparations for his side’s World Cup quarter-final against England on Saturday, but he also became a father for the second time in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Reds legend Phil Thompson has said that the Leicester City defender would be the ideal man to partner Virgil van Dijk and urged the side to make a big money offer for Maguire.