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"It won't be a huge amount of consolation to England fans after Thursday's 2-1 defeat by Uruguay, but there is still a chance the team could qualify \u2014 and it's actually more likely than you might think.\nThat wouldn't be the case but for the fact that Costa Rica, the Central American team nobody expected to advance, beat Uruguay last week. Costa Rica is currently top of England's group, upending all predictions and making the math of Group D very tricky. \nSee also: 13 World Cup GIFs That Sum Up Uruguay vs. England\nHere are the rankings of the teams as they currently stand:\n\nImage:  GoogleLooks impossible, right? But if superstars Italy win both of their next two games \u2014 a distinctly possible outcome \u2014 they'll have 9 points. If England beat Costa Rica at the same time \u2014 also not outside the bounds of reason \u2014 then Uruguay, England and Costa Rica will all have 3 points.\nTo decide who goes through in second place, FIFA will turn to its first tiebreaker: goal difference. England currently have four goals against them and two in their favor, giving them a goal difference of -2, the worst in the group. Again, this doesn't look promising.\nBut let's say, conservatively, that Italy beat Costa Rica and Uruguay by 1-0 each. That would leave Uruguay at a -2 goal difference, putting them back on the same level as England. Costa Rica would still have a +1 goal difference. \nBut for every goal England then scores in England v Costa Rica, the English side's goal difference goes up while Costa Rica's goes down. If England beats Costa Rica by 2-0, that would put Costa Rica on a -1 goal difference \u2014 and England on a big fat zero. \nIncredibly, that would be good enough for England to squeak through to the next round in second place. (It doesn't matter how much Italy beat Uruguay by \u2014 just that they beat them.)\nSo there you have it. England and Italy need to win their next games, and in combination they need to score three goals against tiny Costa Rica while shutting them out. \nIf that happens, England lives to fight another day. \nIs this probable? Not really; there are too many variables at play. But is it possible? Very much so. None of the necessary scorelines would be at all unexpected, certainly not given the relative FIFA rankings of the teams. \nBesides, as any England fan will tell you, the team is invariably at its best when its back is to the wall. The Dunkirk spirit is alive and well, and Roy Hodgson's team just needs a small dose of it to succeed."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/06/19/heres-how-england-can-still-advance-in-the-world-cup/>