Congrats to Croatia. If there was a team in the SFs I wanted to win save England it was them.
Same themes as usual for England tonight. Not very good in open play, reliant on set pieces, very weak down our left-side, no creativity in the middle, only able to keep up our intensity beyond short bursts. So, this shouldn't be too much of a surprise. We're too poor going forward, 1 shot on target, and this is classic Southgate England, and we haven't been that good.
This isn't a stepping stone for England, this is the peak. It's a nice peak considering how bad we are, semi-finals is a real achievement for a team this poor that I predicted round of 16 for. But when you look back on it, we just weren't very good. Scraped past Tunisia, beat rubbish Panama, beat cheating Colombia on penalties, comfortable victory over Sweden and then a toothless defeat a stronger Croatian side. I just don't see us moving 'forwards' from here with our 'young and hungry side', we're not getting better, our coach is poor, and we got lucky with the draw and some big sides under-performing. A lot of things went in our way that won't again. QFs in the Euros at best for us next time, it will be a long time before we get this chance again. As for this 3rd/4th play-off, it's one of the most meaningless fixtures in existence, doubt I shall watch it. If you're really excited for it you need your head checked.
I do need to add what has impressed me is the behaviour of the side and our coach though. I don't like Southgate the coach but he seems like a very nice guy and has restored a connection with the fans. The players too who seem like a lot of great guy. Makes it tolerable to go watch England games again, haven't been to one since our failure at the Euros and think I might go to a few again, they have earned that for me.
With Croatia their golden generation is at their peak and the only way is down for them after this so it is nice to see some very talented players from such a small country get to a World Cup final. I think they'll lose though unfortunately, three games of 120 minutes means they must be exhausted. France to win the tournament it seems, even with their idiot in charge, which isn't the best for them in the long run really...
Good luck to Croatia.
