England fell one win short of its goal of reaching the World Cup final, surrendering a 1-0 lead in Wednesday’s semifinal against Croatia. n the end, it wasn’t England’s redemption story, but Croatia’s. They had that bit more, that bit more nous, that bit more energy, that bit more quality – and now that one more grandiose game, as they make their first ever final. That is really the story of this game, too. There will be a lot of questions and discussion over the different levels of personality and persistence of the sides, over whether England should have pressed home when in the lead and Croatia were apparently on the edge, over John Stones’ struggle with that final fateful ball for Mario Mandzukic’s winner. And while they are fair discussions they would not be fair conclusions. They will be hindsight’s more laboured look at a semi-final that in real time pushed both teams to their hugely admirable limits. That’s how moments like the winning goal happen, that’s how legends are made. That is the pity for England, the glory for Croatia.
The Croatians rallied from behind to win 2-1 in extra time thanks to a goal from Mario Mandzukic. Croatia’s dream continues into Sunday’s final against France. Croatia, with one of the smallest population in this tournament at 4.171 million, is off to the World Cup final for the first time in team history. Before this, Croatia’s best finish was third place in France 1998, its first-ever World Cup appearance. With Croatia playing in its third consecutive extra time match, the team somehow dug deep and found the energy needed to fight off the Three Lions, who looked more tired and fell asleep on the winning goal.
The natural ebbs and flows of any football match cease to be ebbs and flows in such a knock-out but instead become serious tests of the mettle of every player involved. You don’t get another chance to deal with it, or learn from what went wrong, at least in this specific special moment in time. It’s adapt or die. It’s why players aren’t so much making blocks, but looking to force their body towards the ball with every element of their being. It’s not that the game is ebbing and flowing, it was that the different stretches in play were stretching them to the limit. This match went through three distinct phases. The first stage – which was really the first hour – saw everything go right for England, Southgate’s entire game plan pay off, and that was what made the second stage all the more testing and the final score all the more frustrating. Everything fell for England – even when it fell into the problem area of midfield.
