England manager Roy Hodgson has suggested that should the Three Lions qualify for the Rio 2014 World Cup then the players will have the belief that they can win the tournament.

Hodgson, whose side opened their qualifying campaign with a comfortable win in Moldova on Friday, said that even if England are unfancied everyone will be trying their best to win.

"I would say people are entitled to an ­opinion on our chances of ­winning the next World Cup but it doesn't interest me what people say," the Daily Star quotes Hodgson as saying.

"I don't think people actually said we had much chance of ­winning the World Cup in 1966.

"If we ever get there, I am pretty certain I will have a very competitive group of players who will go into every single game believing they can win it."

England reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2012, Hodgson's first tournament in charge.