David Owen: Brazil 2014: England will be hoping for something better than Brazil 1950

It isn’t World Cup fever, but Tuesday night’s win over Poland has left England gripped by what I would diagnose as a mild case of World Cup euphoria.

More than 15,000 fans were said to have registered their interest in going to Brazil; bookies predicted a £100 million betting bonanza; and a much-publicised tabloid story about manager Roy Hodgson’s half-time team-talk seems only to have redoubled the country’s determination to get behind the team.

Let’s just hope things go better than last time.

More than 63 years ago, in June 1950, an England football team including all-time greats such as Alf Ramsey, Tom Finney and Stan Mortensen arrived in Rio for the country’s first FIFA World Cup campaign.

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