{"id":1207,"date":"2018-07-12T11:29:22","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T05:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2018-07-12T11:29:22","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T05:59:22","slug":"5-things-we-learned-as-englands-world-cup-dream-dashed-as-croatia-win-semi-final-in-extra-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/2018\/07\/12\/5-things-we-learned-as-englands-world-cup-dream-dashed-as-croatia-win-semi-final-in-extra-time\/","title":{"rendered":"5 things we learned as England’s World Cup dream dashed as Croatia win semi-final in extra-time"},"content":{"rendered":"

England\u2019s World Cup dream was dashed as Croatia fought back to win their Moscow semi-final 2-1.<\/p>\n

Mario Mandzukic goal in the second-half of extra-time sent Croatia through to their first World Cup final and ended England\u2019s hopes of an unlikely repeat of 1966. The Three Lions took an early lead through a Kieran Trippier free-kick and should have doubled that margin through captain Harry Kane in a dominant first-half display.<\/p>\n

But Croatia grew into the game and equalised after an hour when the lively Ivan Perisic stole in at the back post. England fought on but were second-best for much of the game. Four more years of hurt awaits.<\/p>\n

1.It’s not coming home,Croatia are through<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For all those countless assertions that \u2018football is coming home\u2019 it is, indeed, heading to France or Croatia. England\u2019s despair will be all the harder to take after Kieran Trippier\u2019s early free-kick had them dreaming of a Moscow final on Sunday. Had John Stones\u2019 extra-time header, cleared off the line with the score at 1-1, gone in it might have been a different story.<\/p>\n

England appeared to tire\u00a0in extra time and were finally seen off when Mario Mandzukic\u00a0reacted quickest to Perisic\u2019s\u00a0header to smash the ball past Jordan Pickford.But there could be no complaints as this young England side fell short and Croatia showed their class to deservedly book a final place.<\/p>\n

Could Southgate\u00a0have made changes coming into this game? Could he have used some of the fresh legs from\u00a0his bench? Had he done so and lost he would have faced criticism, so perhaps there was no way of winning. But there was no denying that England left this World Cup\u00a0a shadow of the energetic side that started it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

2.Croatia looked better side running throughout 120 minutes<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Croatia opted for the same 4-1-4-1 system they used in the impressive 3-0 group game win over Argentina, with Marcelo Brozovic sitting behind Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic and allowing the two more creative midfielders to focus on attacking play.<\/p>\n

In the tournament, they have changed personnel and formation throughout, as Zlatko Dalic searched for a combination that worked. He seems to have found that in this 4-1-4-1, but the players should take most of the credit for adapting to everything thrown at them in this World Cup, and earning their place in the final.<\/p>\n

While they struggled to gain a real foothold on the game early on, the second-half saw Croatia begin to dominate possession. The diminutive pair drift into the gaps between midfield and defence and ran England ragged. Their domination of the ball meant they looked much the fresher side by the time extra-time rolled around.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

3.Trippier continues to impress:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A curling free-kick from 25 yards. His career has been a slow burner, showing promise at Barnsley, quietly impressing at Burnley, patiently waiting at Tottenham, and it is hard to conclude anything other than that this must have been another one of Gareth Southgate\u2019s cunning plans, a stroke of genius to scurry away the best right foot in English football for the past eight years in order to unfurl it in all its glory in the fifth minute of a World Cup semi-final.<\/p>\n

And what a right foot. He doesn\u2019t drive his foot straight through the ball, nor does he wrap it around. Instead, he finds a sweet spot between the two, a furious whip that imparts bend and dip. The first-time volleyed cross halfway through the second period was sublime, while his delivery from set-pieces was consistently on point.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

4. England were wasteful and tired<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On the half an hour mark, Kane was put through by Lingard and looked a dead cert to score: not once, but twice. First, he missed a one-on-one with Danijel Subasic and then, somehow, with the goal gaping, he struck his shot against the post from a yard out. Admittedly, it was a tight angle, but with six goals already under his belt in this tournament, the whole of England expected their captain to deliver. Shortly afterwards, Lingard was then presented with his own glorious opportunity on the edge of the box but pushed his effort wide. The grimace on his face said it all.<\/p>\n

It is easy to say with hindsight, but\u00a0England finished this match with the look of a team who ran out of puff. It would have been a brave call by Southgate to change a winning team, a team which almost went 2-0 ahead before half-time,\u00a0but in the second half it seemed clear that Dele Alli was stretched, that Ashley Young was being pulled this way and that, that Raheem Sterling\u2019s influence was dwindling. Harry Kane could barely move in extra time and Kieran Trippier\u00a0hobbled off.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

5<\/strong>. Sterling’s run gave Croatia problems:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So often singled out for criticism, much of it unfair, Raheem Sterling had genuine claims to be considered England\u2019s best player in the first half. Sterling has often darted into little holes during this tournament, his quick footwork allowing space for others to prosper.<\/p>\n

Last night he was at it again, pulling Croatia\u2019s creaking defence all over the pitch.\u00a0 But for some over-enthusiastic through balls from the likes of Jordan Henderson and Dele Alli he may well have had a better chance to notch his first goal of the tournament and shut his critics up once and for all.
\nBut this time he operated further forward, even beyond Harry Kane a lot of the time, as England sought to utilise his pace and unsettle centre-backs Dejan Lovren and Domagoj Vida. The tactic worked a treat as he stretched the play, but England\u2019s loss of control after the restart saw Sterling starved of service and sacrificed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

England\u2019s World Cup dream was dashed as Croatia fought back to win their Moscow semi-final 2-1. Mario Mandzukic goal in the second-half of extra-time sent Croatia through to their first World Cup final and ended England\u2019s hopes of an unlikely repeat of 1966. The Three Lions took an early lead through a Kieran Trippier free-kick and should have doubled that margin through captain Harry Kane in a dominant first-half display. But Croatia grew into the game and equalised after an hour when the lively Ivan Perisic stole in at the back post. England fought on but were second-best for much of the game. Four more years of hurt awaits. 1.It’s … Continue reading “5 things we learned as England’s World Cup dream dashed as Croatia win semi-final in extra-time”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[512,505,407,401,500,329,515,513,326,510,508,321,506,509,504,507,503,501,418,502,511,514],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alli","tag-brozovic","tag-croatia","tag-england","tag-england-vs-croatia","tag-henderson","tag-kane","tag-lingard","tag-lovren","tag-maguire","tag-mandzukic","tag-modric","tag-perisic","tag-pickford-stones","tag-rakitic","tag-rebic","tag-strinic","tag-subasic","tag-vida","tag-vrsaljko","tag-walker-trippier","tag-young-sterling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}