England's narrow 2-1 quarter-final victory over Norway at the World Cup has been met with scathing criticism from pundits, with former Leeds United player Mike Grella comparing praise for the performance to calling 'the world's ugliest daughter beautiful.' Despite advancing to the semi-finals, the Three Lions have been slammed for their display.
Grella's Scathing Attack
Mike Grella, who also played for Brentford and Scunthorpe United, has been working as a pundit for CBS Sports throughout the tournament. Following England's victory on Saturday, he did not hold back in his assessment. In footage shared on CBS' X account, Grella said: 'The good news is you have two games left... and you can actually win a World Cup. The bad news is you're not very good at football. You're not good with the ball or in transition. You leave unbelievable spaces in between the lines. By English standards, a really poor performance.'
He added: 'It's impressive how poor you are and are still able to get away with a win. It's like having the world's ugliest daughter and saying 'oh, you're so beautiful baby.' That was embarrassing how you got through that game. You made Norway look like world-beaters. You have unbelievable superstars in Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, but through facets of the game, not good enough, at all.'
Deeney's Verdict
Former Premier League striker Troy Deeney, also on the panel, offered his views. While less scathing, the 38-year-old, who never earned an international cap, pulled no punches. He said: 'They keep telling you the performances are going to come, but they might not. In wide areas we are average at best, when it's 0-0, we're playing with the shackles on. They told us that they were going to play front-footed football. There's so many questions over what we see compared to the result. The results are brilliant, we keep winning but Norway with Haaland, who was brought off when they were chasing a goal and they still had 10 shots in the game.'
Deeney continued: 'So we don't dominate or control games and then also the changes, in my opinion, we got away with it. Bringing off Declan Rice, we had Reece James as a holding midfielder with Elliot Anderson further up, then we take off Konsa and put James at right-back. We just keep on changing different things, we are getting away with it. I don't care by the way if we win the World Cup, great, give Thomas Tuchel a statue. But again, I'm allowed to say that I am not convinced by what we see other than that we can grind out results, which is great, but there's another level.'
England's Semi-Final Clash
Despite failing to win with flair, England have reached the final four and will take on Argentina for a place in next Sunday's final. The team's ability to grind out results has been praised, but the performances remain a concern for pundits and fans alike.
