It is a matter of hours until we have a winner in normal time. I do not even want to consider extra time let alone penalties. Like every England supporter, I cannot help singing and chanting It’s coming home. I also cannot stop singing Ricky Wilson and Freddie Flintoff’s version of Rasputin.

I love cricket and I love football. To top this my analyst hat is nearly always on. Loving cricket also means that I am slightly superstitious. I am not as bad as I used to be but there are still certain things that I try to avoid as much as possible. I am looking forward to going to the pub to watch the game. The game is being televised by ITV. One of the talking points after England beat Colombia was that England broke the penalty curse. The other was that they broke the ITV curse. I came across this great article about The Curse of ITV. The article gave 3 Points for an England win (including extra time and penalties)1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. The article was written in 2010 and the score ended BBC 67 ITV 48.

In Brazil 2014 they won just one point against Costa Rica which was televised by ITV.

BBC 67 ITV 49

In Russia 2018; England won both the group matches that was shown on BBC and lost the game against Belgium that was shown on ITV; Score: BBC 73 ITV 49. They won the game against Columbia on penalties; Score: BBC 73 ITV 52. The Columbia game supposedly broke the curse and I sure hope it did. The semifinals are being televised on ITV. The last thing I want to happen is for England to come this far and walk away empty handed. The balance and environment that Gareth Southgate has created deserves a final

Based on the Historic Analysis piece that was published on BBC I predicted a France vs. England game. They got the results wrong because they started with eight rather than 16. I started my analysis in a different manner. I got the results of three of the four quarter-finals right. The journey was different but if England gets through the final and win then it will be epic. As predicted France; beat Belgium. England has had more shots blocked than Croatia. Their percentage of blocked shots is also higher. I am optimistically confident that England will make it through. France has fewer shots blocked than England with England playing one game less.

I do believe that England can outrun the curse of ITV again. I just hope that they do not have to compete with the penalty curse again. We as a nation are going through a very tough time. We need whatever relevant good news that we can get.