The England national football team, nicknamed The Three Lions, has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872, and will represent its home country once again in the Qatar World Cup 2022.
In December 2020, England were drawn in Group I of UEFA’s FIFA World Cup qualification cycle, together with Poland, Hungary, Albania, Andorra and San Marino. During the qualification period, each team in the group played the other five teams twice – home and away – meaning England had to fulfil a total of 10 fixtures.
Beginning with their comprehensive victory against San Marino on March 25, the 3-game cycle in March was marked by a streak of wins for The Three Lions, seeing the team beat Albania 2-0 away, then overcome Poland 2-1 on home ground at Wembley. Three more qualifiers were played in September, with both Hungary and Andorra beaten 4-0 and Poland sealing a late 1-1 draw on home soil.
In October, England played two World Cup qualification matches, where they defeated Andorra again 5-0 on October 9, and drew 1-1 with Hungary at home on October 12.
They also registered a resounding 5-0 home victory to Albania in their penultimate qualifier.
Concluding their campaign in November with a game against San Marino that they won 10-0, they successfully breezed through their season and secured their World Cup qualification status.
In spite of a disappointing loss against Italy in the EURO 2020 final, The Three Lions’s road to the finals marks a clear improvement from their previous participation.
As the results of the qualifiers have shown, the current squad is full of promise, even with young players on the team whose talent can’t be compared as easily to the veterans of England and the other national teams in the league.