England fans have begged for a TV scheduling change at the next major tournament after the ITV curse struck again on Saturday night. The Three Lions went head-to-head with France in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar but were beaten 2-1 as they were dumped out of the tournament.
England reached the last eight of the World Cup after finishing top of Group B, before seeing off Senegal in the round of 16. With one of the best squads in international football, the Three Lions were tipped to go all the way in the Middle East. But they were undone as Aurelien Tchouameni and Olivier Giroud struck for Les Bleus either side of a Harry Kane penalty.
Kane had the chance to level the scores for a second time with six minutes of the match remaining. But the Tottenham ace blasted his effort high over the crossbar as France set-up a semi-final showdown with Morocco.
England’s latest defeat came after ITV were chosen to screen the match live. And it was no surprise to some people that the Three Lions came up short in the quarter-final clash as their World Cup record when being shown on ITV makes for grim reading.
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England have now played on ITV 31 times in major tournaments since the start of the 1998 World Cup. And incredibly, the Three Lions have won just seven of those matches. The team have drawn 13 of the games and lost 11.
And Three Lions fans don’t want to see their country suffer the same fate in the future. “And once again ITV proved to be the curse,” wrote @charlie050914 on Twitter. “So hopefully next time the BBC could outbid you for knockout games.”
Meanwhile, @RoystonDooley penned: “Can the @FA please ensure that in any future tournaments, all @England games are NOT on ITV please?” And @LAshworth91 added: “The ITV curse strikes again. At this point they need to just f*** it off & let BBC cover it all.”
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England famously won the World Cup in 1966 but have never reached the final for a second time. The Three Lions have been dumped out at the quarter-final stage in four tournaments since 1966 and have made it to the last four on two occasions. But after the defeat to France, England manager Gareth Southgate insisted his team had made progress.
“I’m so proud of what the players have done, not just tonight but through the whole tournament,” the ex-defender said on Saturday evening. “I think the team has taken a real step forward in all areas. Everybody can see the team has progressed through this tournament.”
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