Can England Win Euro 2016?

England have finished their qualifying campaign for next year’s European Championships with a comfortable 3-0 win over a very average Lithuania side in Vilinus and a 100% record.

It is the first time that England have won all their matches in any qualifying campaign and it is a pretty impressive achievement even if you consider that they just had to beat Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and San Marino to qualify, and the expansion of the Euros to 24 teams means they were always less likely to miss out given top 2 go through to France automatically.

One must remember that about 15 months ago, England had just completed their worst ever performance in a World Cup after a 2-1 defeat to Luis Suarez and Uruguay saw them knocked out of the group stages and without a win.

The turnaround that Roy Hodgson has done with the Three Lions has been impressive particularly with the likes of Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and John Terry all departing the scene after the disaster in Brazil.

Yes, England haven’t really played football that will rock the world and send shudders to the likes of Germany and Spain, but at least they are playing winning football – which can’t be said about World Cup finalists, the Netherlands right now who are on the verge of failing to qualify for a major championship since the 2002 World Cup – and their first failure to make the Euros.

England have strike power up front with Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane scoring aplenty in the qualifiers and have backup in Theo Walcott. James Milner, Jordan Henderson and a fit Jack Wilshere have taken over where Lampard and Gerard left of.

Everton’s John Stones is also developing a fine partnership with Chelsea’s Gary Cahill at the back and with two top quality keepers in Joe Hart and Jack Butland, the defence looks solid and it is no surprise that England have kept plenty of clean sheets during this qualifying campaign.

So can England win Euro 2016? It is hard to say given they haven’t played the likes of Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal and hosts, France who will likely be the teams to beat next year along with recent form teams like Belgium, Wales and Austria who have looked very impressive in qualifying.

Even if they get a tough pool, they have a good chance of making the knockouts so an improvement over the World Cup is expected.  Roy Hodgson is also a master when it comes to sudden death football and England’s more staid defensive style could be handy there – shame about the skill with the penalty shoout.

I reckon at least a semifinal spot if they’re lucky and then they go out on penalties again.