After nine wins from nine in World Cup qualification and their place at next summer's showpiece booked with two games to spare, expectations had heightened that Fabio Capello was the man to bring the coveted trophy back to England. However, two consecutive defeats against Ukraine and Brazil later and doubts are beginning to creep in about England's chances.
A poor performance yesterday by what was mainly England's second string in a 1-0 defeat which in truth flattered England following on from an equally disappointing showing in Dnipro last month.
Of course, it could be argued that England took their foot off the gas in both games as they had already qualified when meeting Ukraine and yesterday's game was just a friendly with many key players missing. There was no sign of the Brazilians doing the same though, they oozed class, goalscorer Nilmar particularly catching the eye and one sensed that they could have played better if they'd needed to.
Looking at England's record under Capello, four defeats from 21 games may not seem so bad. Three of those teams though were France, Spain and Brazil. If we are to win the World Cup next summer it's likely we are going to come across one of these teams, Spain and Brazil being the best in the world at the moment.
I am not saying Capello hasn't done well, there has been definite progression and at least we have qualified for World Cup 2010 after the disaster of missing out on Euro 2008. I just urge fans not to expect too much as there are some quality teams around in the world at the moment getting to the semi-finals would be a success. For me at the moment though you can look no further than Brazil and Spain.
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There was disappointment also over in Dublin as The Republic Of Ireland's chances of qualification hang by a thread as they lost the home leg of their World Cup play-off against France 1-0.
It is a huge ask of the Irish now to go to Paris and win by two goals (or do it on penalties). I said on Friday that I felt The Republic had to win last night's game and I stand by that. You never know what can happen in football though and all is not yet lost.
If indeed qualification failure is confirmed on Wednesday, this should not mask what strides Ireland have made under Giovanni Trapattoni. Drawn into a group also containing world champions Italy it was always likely that their only chance of qualification would come through the play-offs.
Ireland actually remained unbeaten in the group, though it was too many draws that ultimately denied them challenging the Italians for top spot in group 8. Then lady luck didn't smile on them again as they were drawn against France, thanks partly to FIFA's decision to seed the play-offs after noticing the possibility of two big nations meeting each other.
Trapattoni has indeed done a fabulous job and The Republic Of Ireland are in with a great shout of reaching Euro 2012. They just need to hope for a bit more luck when the draw is made.
