England’s glorious run at the 2018 World Cup finally came to an end after they were knocked out of the semi-final by Croatia.
England took the lead in the 5th minute of the match courtesy of a wonderful free-kick by Kieran Trippier. And immediately it seemed as if the Three Lions would manage to hold onto the lead and move on to the final.
But the Croatian team had other ideas as Modric and co pushed on and eventually equalized through Ivan Perisic in the 68th minute.
After the equalizer, England looked absolutely rattled but managed to hold onto until the 90th minute – pushing the game into extra time.
While everyone thought that Southgate’s men would get a new lease of life in extra time but it was Croatia who shifted gears and eventually went ahead through a fine strike from Mario Mandzukic.
England tried hard but ultimately failed to come up with an answer resulting in a victory for Croatia.
If you have been following England’s run at the World Cup during the past couple of tournaments then their every exit has been met with anger and disgust. But this one was different.
Harry Kane and co were praised for their valiant efforts and almost everyone congratulated the English side for reaching the semis.
But it seems that not everyone was happy with England’s performance.
Croatia right-back Sime Vrsaljko claimed that England lost simply because of their age-old philosophy.
The 26-year-old claimed that England’s familiar tactic of playing long balls was something that has not changed over the decades.
After the match, Vrsaljko said: ‘The all-around perception was that this is a new-look England who have changed their ways of punting long balls upfield but when we pressed them it turned out that they haven’t,’
Vrsaljko’s statement does have a fair amount of truth in it, simply because once England were hit with the Perisic goal, they did not have an answer.
But rather than accusing and blaming their team, the England fans have been in a joyous mood.
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