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Football London
Football London
Sport
Stephen Killen

Glen Hoddle unfazed by USA draw as England tipped to combat World Cup favourites Brazil and Spain

Former England manager Glen Hoddle has dismissed fears over the Three Lions' World Cup hopes after their drab goalless draw against USA.

Gareth Southgate's side are still in pole position despite being held in the second group match. Christian Pulisic rattled the bar in the first-half but the point moved the European Championship finalists onto four points and top of Group B.

A lot of the fallout was in response to the second-half substitutions which saw no place for Manchester City's Phil Foden. Jack Grealish, Marcus Rashford and Jordan Henderson were all introduced but failed to influence the full-time result.

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Brazil and France have established themselves as the early-tournament favourites following their emphatic performances so far in the Group Stage. But Hoddle isn't fazed by England's minor bump.

He told Betfair : "I've said it time and time again, but in tournament football, nobody has won the World Cup without having an off day, possibly the great Brazil side in 1970 as the exception.

"Nobody dominates and wins exactly how you want a team to. Italy in 1982 were dreadful, they were whiskers away from getting knocked out and they went on to win it. It's all about peaking as you go through the tournament, so I'm not too disheartened by situation that England find themselves in.

"We could have a great win tomorrow and suddenly everyone is back on a high again and we're all saying we're capable of winning the tournament.

"I haven't seen a team that is frightening me yet, I think France and Brazil are still the two teams to beat. I wouldn't be afraid of playing Germany, Spain or Netherlands. I think we can turn it on against teams and it's going to be interesting to see how things pan out.

"It wasn't a disastrous result against the USA, but it wasn't a good performance and I actually thought they played better than us all round the pitch," he added.

"I expected the USA to put in a good performance. I think they are a side that are growing and they probably have one eye on their own World Cup in four years time. They're doing a good job of building a team towards that.

"As good as everyone was individually in the first match, everyone was off their peak in the game against the USA. Harry Maguire can come out of that game with a good feeling, but there weren't too many performances that we can look at and say they played well. When that happens you're normally in trouble, but to play like that and get a draw, it's a good result.

"We're top of the group, we shouldn't get too carried away either way. We're going into the Wales game knowing what we have got to do and we'll qualify from this group. That's what tournament football is all about, qualify first and then take whatever you get in the last 16 and see where that takes you."

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