From it’s coming home to they’re coming home
A tale of two halves
5th minute: Kieran Trippier buries a free kick into the net and the England fans across the world start believing that it’s finally coming home.
116th minute: Trippier limps off with a groin complaint.
This kind of tells the story of the Croatia vs England semi-finals at the FIFA World Cup 2018.
It was clearly a tale of two halves.
England started the game very strong and should have been two to three goals up if Kane & Co had taken their chances well. But they did not and Croatia bounced back in the 68th minute through Ivan Perisic who was the MoTM not only for the goal but for the chances he created. In fact, he should have scored the winner before extra time when he hit the post from close range (similar to his chance vs Russia in the quarter finals).
Coming back to England, Kane went missing in the most important game of the Cup. So did Alli. And Southgate made his first wrong sub of the tournament, taking off Sterling instead of Alli. Not replacing Walker earlier also cost England the game as he could not win the header which led to Mandzukic’s winner in the 109th minute.
But England lost the game in the second half. Croatia started coming back into the game and once Perisic equalized with a karate kick goal, England lost their confidence.
England should have been able to capitalize on Croatia’s poor first half but they did not and Croatia, like they have done throughout the tournament, bounced back strongly and deservedly are in the finals against France, who are now strong contenders for the trophy.
Fun fact: 1998 was the first time Croatia reached the semi-finals and France last won the world cup.
However, England should be proud of what they have achieved. No one expected this young England team to reach the semi-finals (though it did help that most of the top contenders bowed out). The future does look bright for the Three Lions and Gareth Southgate. FA should give him the next 4 years to build a strong team and aim to win both the Euro 2020 and the World Cup 2022.
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