SF2: Croatia v England

[Burgey]

Has anyone opined it’s Stirling’s fault yet?

 

[Daemon]

Tough luck and well done England, chin up Adders at least the next Ashes is coming home

 

[cpr]

^ And rightly so. One of their best WCs for generations!

fixed

 

[Adders]

Holy crap, the initial headlines are positive

*insert four horseman jpeg*

The press arent gonna turn on them.....they did the country proud and will be well received when they get home.

In 1990 after the semis loss I was 1 of 250,000 that travelled to Luton airport to welcome the team home. The scenes were crazy and I'd expect to see the same sort of thing this time.

 

[Johnners]

Well in Croatia, and WP England.

Modric took over in that 2nd half and they didn't have an answer.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Feel for the England fans. Great run in the tournament but Croatia deserved winners imo. Modric was sensational again.

Rooting really hard for Croatia but feel France probably have too much.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

**** Croatia you spuds.

 

[Johnners]

Not sure how Lovren didn't end the game with at least 1 yellow card. Multiple times body checking i think Kane? to stop counter attacks, but the worst was the kick on Sterling in the first half.

Seemed the case in the quarter finals as well, the refs have been lenient in handing them out imo.

 

[Niall]

This was a great call on Mandzukic.

ha, to late to delete that. More ashamed of the fact I called Federer past the post after 2-0 up v Anderson in the tennis tbh.

Probably shouldn't make any predictions for the world cup final after the above, but if I were to, I suspect France will win, quality defense, midfield and attack.

Still don't really rate Mandzukic even if that makes me very much in the minority.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Not sure how Lovren didn't end the game with at least 1 yellow card. Multiple times body checking i think Kane? to stop counter attacks, but the worst was the kick on Sterling in the first half.

Good thing for Lovren is that he's allowed to get 3 yellow's before being sent off, as is Croatian tradition.

 

[Shri]

Bahahahaha.

 

[Zinzan]

**** me, I knew Croatia's population was relatively small, but I was figuring it was about 10 million. Turns out it's only about 4.2 million, that's smaller than New Zealand in the most global sport in the world. Win the final or not, it's phenomenal they've got where they have.

 

[wpdavid]

Not sure how Lovren didn't end the game with at least 1 yellow card. Multiple times body checking i think Kane? to stop counter attacks, but the worst was the kick on Sterling in the first half.

Seemed the case in the quarter finals as well, the refs have been lenient in handing them out imo.

Yeah, the referees have been weak throughout, and last night was no exception.

That being said, the better team won. We weren't quite good enough to take our chances in the first half and their midfield totally dominated from about 50 minutes into the game. Our keeper was far busier than theirs.

 

[wpdavid]

**** me, I knew Croatia's population was relatively small, but I was figuring it was about 10 million. Turns out it's only about 4.2 million, that's smaller than New Zealand in the most global sport in the world. Win the final or not, it's phenomenal they've got where they have.

Yes, that struck me too. I had no idea until someone mentioned the fact yesterday.

 

[wpdavid]

Felt once Croatia equalised we lost it tactically, the gaps between defence and attack just widened. It became easy for Croatia to defend the direct play from deep and gave them ample space to bring the ball upfield. Should've looked to bring Loftus-Cheek on to give us some movement between the lines, neither Ali nor Lingard were doing so, so we just had 4 up top rarely seeing the ball. Least in extra time Maguire started to bring the ball forward into the space instead of sending it direct.

Still though, from a team thats probably just above middling on paper, we've done really well. Certain star players have lived up the billing (Kane), whilst others who'd probably be considered a bit lightweight in previous squads (Maguire, Trippier, Pickford) have absolutely nailed it. Tons of credit to Southgate for that, and it gives hope that we've got a structure and template for improvement going forward for once.

Agree with all of that. By the middle of the second half, we were saying that RLC and/or Delph should replace one or both of Alli and Lingard, as the midfield had become non-existent. For once, removing Sterling probably wasn't the right call as it didn't solve the problem with the side in that particular match.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Not gutted today at all as I never expected them to get that far anyway. Have to give the Croatia manager credit though as they were awful in the first half and he tinkered with it and got them going. They deserved it over the entire night in the end as we only really played for 45 minutes and ran out of steam much earlier than them. Been a fun ride and we exploited the draw to get that far. Least it was more enjoyable than every tournament since Rooney burst on the scene as a teenager and we have some hope for the future.

 

[Dan]

Perisic is such a hero. WAG.

 

[Furball]

I know English fans will be disappointed, but still an amazing effort from England to make it this far. They could still win the 3rd place playoff which would be incredible for them.

Winning the 3rd placed playoff is meaningless.

 

[Furball]

England were totally smoked in that match by a far better team. The disallowed goal was red herring that allowed a few people to get unjustifiably upset about how they had been thrashed.

Momentum is so important in football though. From memory Lampard's 'goal' wasn't long after England pulled one back, going to 2-2 in a short space of time after being 2-0 down could potentially have changed the game massively.

 

[wpdavid]

Momentum is so important in football though. From memory Lampard's 'goal' wasn't long after England pulled one back, going to 2-2 in a short space of time after being 2-0 down could potentially have changed the game massively.

Yes, Scaly made the same point at the time and you're both right. You'd still fancy Germany to go on and win the match given the difference in quality between the sides, but there's more to it than 'it would have been 4-2'