The English team were defeated by Croatia at Moscow, Russia and are now set to compete at the Finals with France On Sunday.
At the 5th minute, Kieran Trippier netted a goal for England but their jubilation was cut short after Croatia’s Ivan Perisic restored parity at the 68th minute.
Croatia’s Mario Mandzukic scored the deciding goal at the 68th minute securing their way to the World Cup finals.
Watch the highlights below;
Undoubtedly, the English team came in as everyone’s favourite and with this scoreline, it goes to prove that football is unpredictable
Speaking after the heated match, England’s coach Gareth Southgate said;
“In the first half we were really good, and could have had another. We had chances. There was a spell in the second half when they got the goal and their tails were up, we had to weather the storm. Possibly at that moment, we were hanging on a bit. Great credit, in extra time we got back into the game and showed some more composure. The biggest thing is our supporters at the end, and their reaction. That tells you what the players have given, not just tonight but over the period. I can’t ask any more. Knockout football is fine margins. When you have spells, you have to make them count; we probably needed that second goal. We’ve come an incredible long way in a short space of time. We are probably beyond where we thought we might be able to go. So tonight we weren’t quite there, but the team will be stronger for that.”
Croatia’s victory over England has taken them a step closer to the clinch the World Cup title as they would want to bring all their tactical prowess at the upcoming final match against France who defeated Belgium in a 1-0 match when Samuel Umtiti scored a goal at the 51st minute.
Unluckily for Belgium, they were unable to equalize after striving to get a goal before full time but they would have a chance to play against England for the third place position.
So far the Croatia has reach this level from getting wins from penalty shoot outs but today’s performance goes a long way to show how hungry the team is to win the World Cup.
The last time Croatia reached the semi finals was at the World Cup France ’98 football tournament and England last reached the semi final as far back as Italia ’90.