England vs. Germany: Old World Cup Rivalries Die Hard

While the Three Lions have come painfully close to achieving new glory in the last few years, English football fans are still forced to cling on to their first and only major tournament win - way back in 1966. The victory came on home soil against the 'old enemy', Germany. Since then though, with the Germans having won a total of four World Cups and three European titles, getting one up on their biggest rival has been restricted to rare, sometimes freak victories. The fact that until England cathartically knocked Germany out of the Euros in 2021, the go-to win to gloat about was still a relatively meaningless World Cup qualifier in 2001, says it all.

Confirming the rivalry is still alive and well though, new data from the Statista Global Consumer Survey shows that there is no other team that fans in England would rather have not win the World Cup this year than Germany. From a German perspective, with bigger fish to fry over the years since 1966, England clearly isn't the number one focus. This year, moral objections to the hosts Qatar appear to have taken priority over seeing England fail, but the rivalry is still not dead. With 14 percent, England was the second most common response in Germany when asked: "Who don't you want to win the World Cup?".