Quote:
Originally Posted by GirlySports
perhaps but they lost to Sweden and Norway in 92 and 93. Not exactly skilled teams. Norway outhoofed England! Euro 92 was a weird tournament. France were perfect in qualifying and didn't get out of England group either.
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The authors' main argument was that England didn't select the strategy that would lead to the best probability of scoring/winning. They stated that possession football generated more scoring opportunities and therefore represented the best chance of winning according to the statistics. The fact that Norway and Sweden played a game that conceded possession to the opposition only strengthens the authors' argument as if England played possession football, they would have had an even greater amount of possession than usual and the probability of scoring would have been higher than normal. By playing hit and hope football England actually played into Norway and Sweden's hands.