World Cup 2018: England can go all the way - if Gareth Southgate is as good as his word#BK5l

World Cup 2018: England can go all the way - if Gareth Southgate is as good as his word Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face. World Cup 2018: England can go all the way - if Gareth Southgate is as good as his word England may have their greatest chance to reach a World Cup final at Russia 2018, writes Rob Smyth, but only if Gareth Southgate stays true to his principles... When England play Colombia on Tuesday night, we will find out the true strength of his principles, and the extent to which his players have got the message about leaving the past behind. We still dont really know if they are any good - it was only Tunisia, it was only Panama - but they have backed up everything Southgate has said about doing things differently. Southgate has enough experience of knockout football as a player - good, bad and catastrophic - to know that England should not deviate from their new approach no matter what the stakes. Sometimes that has been out of necessity, when down to 10 men or being outplayed, but it also shows the recurring lack of belief that they can go toe to toe in the biggest matches.