An early goal was not enough to stop Croatia from eliminating England’s dream of reaching the final of the World Cup for the first time since 1966.
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According to Federation Internationale de Football Association, the players “continued to display unauthorised commercial branding on playing equipment items before and during the quarter-final match between Sweden and England”.
Zagreb’s main square exploded with joy and wild celebrations after Mario Mandzukic netted the victor in extra time to send his team into the July 15 final at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium against France.
Trippier’s curling fifth-minute free-kick was his first worldwide goal, a prominent example of the quality of his delivery that has given rise to the “Bury Beckham” moniker, because he was born in Bury near Manchester.
“We got some control back in extra time and showed some more composure”.
There’s nothing better, when people are writing you off and saying “you’re not fit to wear the shirt”, slagging people off, it’s kind of saying: ‘Well, there you go – have that back at you.’ But we do it for ourselves as well.
Given Croatia had extra time and penalties to recover from, England should come into the game fresher and they also have the edge in previous meetings, winning four of the seven encounters, including a 5-1 victory in their most recent match – a World Cup qualifier in 2009. Ante Rebic and Ivan Rakitic were closely watched and it prevented them from having a decent effect on the game in the first half.
Without stopping to converse with English journalists, he simply said: “It’s not coming home”.
“I can’t ask any more”, England manager Gareth Southgate said of his team.
Defender Sime Vrsaljko, who was an injury doubt before the game but played the full 120 minutes, was critical of England’s style of play.
“We can hold our heads up high”, said team Captain Harry Kane after the loss.
“Any time I get an opportunity to play for England, I want to do that”.
Kieran Trippier’s 5th-minute free-kick goal was the first direct free-kick scored in the knock-out stage during the 2018 world cup.
Ivan Perisic’s goal destabilized England’s set-up. “We knew what they were doing and where”, he said.
“We are an inexperienced team, a young team no one expected to get this far in the first place”.
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Unafraid to call it as he sees it, Dalic will be hoping he can take the next step and bring Croatia to an unlikely World Cup triumph. But we’ve fallen just a bit short.
