Harry Maguire has told England to forget about returning home without the World Cup trophy.
And Maguire has warned his Three Lions team-mates they will be branded failures this time if they don’t go on to land the biggest prize in football.
Gareth Southgate’s men reached the semi finals of Russia 2018 and came back as heroes. But Maguire insists times have changed since then and that more glorious failure is no longer an option.
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England face a crunch quarter-final showdown with reigning champions France on Saturday looking to keep their dream alive. And Maguire insists his side have total belief they can go all the way at Qatar 2022.
The defender admits he has even dreamt of getting his hands on the trophy and he said: “I think that’s the one thing I’d say that’s a lot different from the 2018 squad to this squad.
“I think we really believe that it is possible. I played in 2018 and we got to the semi-final and I think a lot of the lads were happy. You were happy to be part of the semi-final.
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“You know that whatever happened in that semi-final, you’d go home and be classed as a hero. When you got home you’d get a good reception and everyone would be patting you on the back.
“I think now there’s a belief that we’ve got to win this tournament. It is a good change in the mentality. Of course, we know how tough it is going to be. I think there are probably five or six teams with the same belief as us.
“But in 2018, we probably weren’t one of those teams that had that belief. Now there’s five or six who have that belief – and we’re one of them.”
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