YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU

'66 legend says we can win World Cup and cheer up recession-hit nation | If ever we needed a boost it’s now... the players understand that and we can win it By Sir Geoff Hurst

- PATRICK HILL

WORLD Cup legend Sir Geoff Hurst today tells Gareth Southgate’s stars: “You CAN do it.” 

On the eve of England’s match with Iran, the 1966 hero says: “If ever we needed a boost, it is now.”

WE’RE just 24 hours away from England’s World Cup opener against Iran and I’m feeling nothing but positivity.

We CAN win this World Cup and it won’t be a surprise to me if we DO.

It’s as simple as that.

We have the best bunch of young players at the top level and they have great experience after reaching the final of the Euros last year and the semi-finals of the last World Cup.

The country is obviously going through a difficult time with the costof-living crisis and rising taxes which are making things very difficult for people, especially families.

It’s awful, so if ever we needed a boost it is now – and I think the players understand that.

Football is gigantic to the country, so it’ll be fantastic if we do well.

It’ll make everyone feel better and will give the entire country an enormous boost. It couldn’t come at a better time.

CAMARADERIE

No one knows better than me what a boost doing well in a World Cup gives a country and how people talk about it.

Fifty-six years on from our victory in ’66, people still tell me even now where they were and what they were doing when we won.