If England has had an easy route to semis, so has Croatia. In fact, they beat weaker teams than England (Colombia is better than Denmark and Russia). And for that matter, so has France. Argentina were atrocious, and Uruguay is slightly better than Colombia, but hardly world beaters. And like Colombia who missed James, Uruguay missed Cavani.
So, I guess only Belgium had a tough route cause they played Brazil. But then before Brazil, they faced Japan which was the worst team in the 1/8th of finals.
So, England has been lucky in the sense that:
- there hasn't been really top teams. However, that happens all the time. Not every world cup is stakced with super teams like 2006 was. Both 2014 and 2010 weren't that strong in that aspect. Holland defeated Mexico and Costa Rica (in pens) to reach semis last time around. Spain defeated Paraguay and Portugal (when they scored from an offside for the only goal of the match) to reach semis in 2010. Argentina needed extra times against Switzerland and then faced a young Belgium with an atrocious coach to reach semis last time around. Germany in 2002 reached final without meeting a good, let alone great, team in 2010. So, it happens all the time.
- Colombia missed James Rodriguez. Well, this is true. It could have gone some other way if this wasn't the case. Again, it happens. Uruguay missed Cavani too, but you hardly see every other post containing sentence 'France has been lucky'.