Former England international Michael Owen believes it would be pretty disastrous if the Three Lions fail to progress beyond the round of 16 of this summer’s World Cup. England have been pitted against Panama, Tunisia and Belgium in their World Cup group and further progress could see them face one of Colombia, Japan, Senegal or Poland in the round of 16.

As such, Owen expects his country to at least reach the quarter-final stage and anything short of that could be been termed as disastrous, according to the former Liverpool star. Owen told Gulf News: “I don’t see England within the top five or six to be honest. But they’ve been very lucky with the draw and even in the second round we’re playing against only an okay group, so in theory it would be pretty disastrous if we don’t get into the quarter-finals.We’ve said that before and got beat by Iceland of course.”

England has always gone to major tournaments with plenty of expectations but they have rarelymanaged to deliver. The Three Lions surprisingly failed to garner a single victory during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and their Euro 2016 campaign also ended in a bitter note as they suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of Iceland.

Judging by this, the Three Lions need to be wary of any setbacks against the likes of Panama and Tunisia in their group, given they have to contend with a tricky and difficult challenge against Belgium in one of their games. England have certainly shown progress with plenty of recent success in their youth grades but the progress into the senior side has not always been smooth and they face a stern challenge of their credentials this summer. England previously won the World Cup in 1966.