"It's not a world cup without England", says Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger with Robert Pires during a training session

Arsene Wenger spoke about the recently concluded World Cup qualifiers in an interview to Arsenal Player. He said that World Cup wouldn’t be the same without England in it. He also lauded England coach Roy Hodgson’s efforts in getting the Three Lions to qualify for the World Cup despite all the criticisms he had to endure.

Wenger said , “Overall, England came out of a stressful period in a positive way.I am very pleased for Roy Hodgson because I know how harsh the judgements can be on the national team here.

“A World Cup without England is not a World Cup. They dealt well with their last two opponents because Montenegro and Poland were tricky.”

Wenger also spoke about his national team France and said, “France finished second.They are on the way up and their last few results have been positive. They had Spain in the group and they finished with 19 points, three behind Spain. That was expected.

“Overall there were no surprises. Maybe the fact that Uruguay has the qualifier but they will play Jordan. They will have a good chance to go through. So in Brazil you should have all the big countries to compete for the World Cup,” summed up the Frenchman.