Interesting facts about the CL, WC and English players.

So England went out early yet again. And after the group stages, we have not actually beaten any nation of note since Germany in 1966.

And yet again, Germany at least make the QF stage, which they have done every time since 1954. (What a record that is)

I have collated the starting lineups of the winners of the CL from the year 2000 onwards, with surprising results.

Here are the nationalities of those line-ups and the number of times that that country has had a representation.

24 - Spain

14 - Portugal

13 - Brazil

13 - Itay

10 - England

8 - Argentina

8 - France

6 - Holland

4 - Germany

3 - Cameroon

2 - Czechoslovakia

1 - Mexico, Romania, Macedonia, Poland, Ireland, Fiji, Mali, Norway, Australia, Georgia, Ukraine, Ghana, Sweden and Bosnia.

As can be seen, England have amongst the best representation, and Germany way down.

So what can be said about the respective performances in WC's then.

England have the player edge, does it therefore come down to a question of the Germans performing as a team and the English not ? The manager of each side using better tactics ? Or a little bit of both.

Not an FM topic- post this in the Football or World Cup forum for discussion