England must avoid hyperbole on their way to the 2026 World Cup

England’s impressive 5-0 victory over Serbia on Tuesday night put them on the cusp of qualification for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The Three Lions had been largely underwhelming since Thomas Tuchel was appointed manager, but stepped things up in style to triumph in Belgrade.

England are rated as 7/1 shots by Betway to win the World Cup next summer, and their long-suffering fans may believe those odds represent good value.

However, they would be well-advised to temper their enthusiasm a little given that England have been down this path frequently over the past few decades.

They have generally had little difficulty qualifying for major tournaments, before failing to live up to expectations when they face the top teams in the world.

Hyperbole has been one of England’s biggest downfalls for many years and it was prevalent again last night, with former striker Ian Wright leading the charge.

Wright was exuberant in the ITV Sport studio, suggesting that he is already looking forward to England featuring in the World Cup final next summer.

He was quickly handed a dose of realism by Roy Keane, who delivered a witty retort to Wright’s overly enthusiastic comments.

“You are already in the final, are you?” Keane said. “Obviously, England have won the World Cup now. Just cancel the World Cup and give it to England. Who is going to be the runners-up?”

While Keane’s response to Wright was clearly tongue in cheek, his comments should serve as a reminder to England about not getting ahead of themselves.

In fairness to Tuchel, he appeared to be eager to keep a lid on expectations after the game despite his team producing their best performance under his tenure.

England’s cheerleaders were quick to point out that several key players were missing from the squad including Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer and John Stones.

Adam Wharton also missed out, while Trent Alexander-Arnold, Harry Maguire, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish were overlooked by Tuchel.

Their absences were highlighted as a means of suggesting that England have an embarrassment of riches at their disposal, but Tuchel adopted a more pragmatic view.

“You can have your ideas whom you want to nominate but then comes the last weekend and players are out and players are injured,” Tuchel said.

“Players feel something and then you have to make hard decisions on some positions. So, it is also me to take these decisions.

“We took the group that was available and we took the group that we made available for us because we thought it’s the right thing to do – to start in this season with this group.

“They proved the point in camp every day and they made it visible with this result and this performance to our fans and that’s what counts.

“This is the message and now we try to build on that of course. But there can be changes again – maybe we need to be forced to have changes again.

“I just told the group if I had the possibility to make ten changes, I would have made ten substitutions today because everyone deserved to play and I hope we can keep this going.”

Tuchel’s refusal to get too carried away is a sensible approach given England’s traditional penchant for fluffing their lines on the biggest stage.

Tougher tests than Serbia await England if they qualify for the World Cup and history shows that things rarely work out well when the team’s ability is overstated.