England v Croatia

[bfcjg]

Gary Neville summed it up for me.

[dermotdermot]

Most people on this board will disagree but if you try to compete at this level and you leave the one player at home who can keep the ball and hold the midfield, you will not win. If your only option is to replace the mediocre Henderson with abysmal Dier, you haven’t a hope.

[IanMcL]

Should have buried them, first half. Paid for it. Lots looked out on their feet. Trippier, out, off his feet. Looked bad.

Silltmy mistake for their 2nd. That happens when players are knackered.

The upside is that Nick Oipe might get a game on Saturday!

[chekhov]

In the end we just don't have enough quality players. It was all a bit hit and hope and when there was a half chance we lost the ball or overhit a pass. Best team won but fair play to the lads. No complaints from me.

[ClaretAndJew]

Should have buried them, first half. Paid for it. Lots looked out on their feet. Trippier, out, off his feet. Looked bad.

Silltmy mistake for their 2nd. That happens when players are knackered.

The upside is that Nick Oipe might get a game on Saturday!

Are you alright mate?

[Rick_Muller]

Most people on this board will disagree but if you try to compete at this level and you leave the one player at home who can keep the ball and hold the midfield, you will not win. If your only option is to replace the mediocre Henderson with abysmal Dier, you haven’t a hope.

You on about Jack Cork... or someone else...???

[IanMcL]

Are you alright mate?

Ha! Predictive text! It doesn't like the word Pope for some reason. Have to go back and correct. Forgot! Silly also looks strange.

Up the Clarets.

[Blackrod]

The better team with on the day won. Disappointing and don't think we will reach a World Cup Final in my lifetime. Doubt we will ever get an easier passage. Great first half poor second and poor extra time. We always needed 2 goals. Great performances over the cup from Maguire Stones Trippier and Kane ( although Kane Anonymous tonight). Think Lingard ( how many scoring chances has he had) Alli and particularly Sterling can offer better.

[Tall Paul]

Southgate quoting Dyche's fine margins in his post match interview.

[Jakubclaret]

Most people on this board will disagree but if you try to compete at this level and you leave the one player at home who can keep the ball and hold the midfield, you will not win. If your only option is to replace the mediocre Henderson with abysmal Dier, you haven’t a hope.

Agree, As a observation, I don't think Gareth played his strongest hand, fail to see what rashford brings must be auto selection with his current club would have preferred vardy he didn't get as much time as I would liked.

[BurnleyFC]

Roy Keane is good value here.

[Im_not_Robbie_Blake]

It's not coming home

[nil_desperandum]

Fairly poor how a team far older than us who have gone to extra time in their last two games look miles fitter than we do.

Not necessarily fitter, but more experienced, wiser - and most importantly they know how to keep possession of the ball. They let the ball do the work, whilst we were chasing for pretty much all the 2nd half.
Add to that: England went off at a very high tempo in the first half, and Croatia took a long time to get going.
The problem was that we only scored one in that half, and the problem IS that we scarcely look like scoring in open play.

[walter the softy]

Although I am a bit disappointed, the best team won on the day and it will also be great to see someone unexpected in the World Cup final. I have never really been so into an England team since probably 1990 but this team have made me feel really proud. It is obvious that we are lacking in truly world class players in every position but they have given it their best and played fair throughout.

As for Trippier, that goal today was brilliant and the past couple of weeks people have been talking about him being one of the best players of the tournament. It is all more than I could have hoped for. Proud as hell of him.

Let the naysayers do their worst. For me, it has been a brilliant World Cup.

[starting_11]

Colombia are a decent side.

And when started playing as one were kicking the **** out of us.

No flashes of anything tonight , if tripppiewerrree hadn't scored,none of our strikers would.

Completely bottled

[Walt]

We've surpassed pre tournament expectations so got be happy with that.

On Kane, he's disappointed me. Serious questions about his fitness totally gone missing in all games after about an hour.

Having said that, in fairness to him the service from open play has been woeful. Still question his own fitness levels though.

Massive opportunity missed.

Absolutely gutted.

[Imploding Turtle]

And when started playing as one were kicking the **** out of us.

No flashes of anything tonight , if tripppiewerrree hadn't scored,none of our strikers would.

Completely bottled

I'm not sure if you're just pretending to be the worst kind of football fan, or actually are the worst kind of football fan.

[ebby]

Best team won - we got further than we all thought. End of story - time to get ready for our season.

[Millertime v1.7]

Turtle bud, that's a BIT rich coming from a hun

[Walt]

But in Modric and Rakitić two midfield players that are at a standard we should aspire to.

The most disappointing thing is their best two players did very little. It was there for the taking at half time and we came out a completely different side.

[nil_desperandum]

The most disappointing thing is their best two players did very little. It was there for the taking at half time and we came out a completely different side.

Did you actually watch Modric in the 2nd half?
He was everything that England lack (unfortunately).

[Spijed]

Did you actually watch Modric in the 2nd half?
He was everything that England lack (unfortunately).

Modric is arguably up there with Xavi & Iniesta.

[Six fingers]

2 shots on target

[starting_11]

I'm not sure if you're just pretending to be the worst kind of football fan, or actually are the worst kind of football fan.

Easy on now love.

We buckled under the slightest pressure.

Burnley do too in nearly every "big game"

It's nothign to be embarassed about with us, we aren't used to playing the heady heights of Lincoln and Huddersfield.

You'd have thought England players would have been used to the likes of Rakitic and Modric etc

Nevermind.

I hardly expected us to win, although I wasn't one of the doommongers like most of this board saying "it doesn't matter we won't get out of the group stage/quarter final anyway"

As for "our glorious performance" as a lot of people like to see it, had you released a questionnaire before the world cup asking if we'd have beaten Tunisia, Panama, Colombia and Sweden people would have said yes.

Had you asked "will they beat France, Brazil, Germany" they'd have said no.

We lost the easiest road to the world cup ever. If somehow Croatia beat France, that would be something. As it stands, I think France will beat them 3-4 nil easy.

Southgate played a blinder by asking Pickford to look a right idiot by dropping a clanger to Belgium. Probably got another 2 years of his £4m salary out of them though.

[Wile E Coyote]

kane is a media darling, but on the pitch he was dross, as was his diving club mate

[Wile E Coyote]

miniscule country croatia, were fitter, cleverer, and a great deal more talented than england.

[Spijed]

Burnley do too in nearly every "big game"

We qualified for Europe!

[tiger76]

It is a fact that never again will England have a kinder draw in a World Cup, where we didn't face a team higher than us in the FIFA rankings in a meaningful match throughout the tournament. We lost to Belgium in a game that was a non event. England can only beat the teams that they are drawn against but this team is being elevated to a level that they have not yet reached.

Croatia looked dreadful for the first 35 minutes and if they play like that against France they will get buried.

That is the annoying aspect tonight,England got lucky with the draw,finally managed victory in a penalty lottery for once,and breezed past a fairly average Swedish side in the quarters,Croatia are no mugs by any means,but they aren't world beaters either,perfect start with the early goal and a dominant first half when the game should have been down and dusted,credit to Croatia they came out with a purpose second half and over the piece deserve to edge it,Modric was tireless as ever and their greater control and experience proved decisive,in all honesty i can't see them troubling the French on Sunday.

England currently are not the finished article and 4 years hence will improve,alas so will all the big-hitters that fell by the wayside in Russia,can't help feeling we will live with regret at not taking this golden chance,a once in a generation tilt which is unlikely to happen again.

[South West Claret.]

Hopefully the players are young and must learn from this also Gareth Southgate.

[Wile E Coyote]

doesnt matter what they learn, it wont ever work.

[piston broke]

Surprised at all the kudos Modric is getting. I thought he had his quietest game of the tournament.
The biggest disappointment is how drained we looked after HT. It usually changes after HT but with the lead we had we should have been cuter with the ball. Stones reverted to thinking he’s a footballer, he isn’t. The sooner he realises his strength is as a stopper the better.
And although they thoroughly deserved their win Perisic goal should have been reviewed, he kicks Walkers head. That has to be dangerous play.

[starting_11]

We qualified for Europe!

And we'd have qualified for Europe proper had we finished off the ones we should

[CrosspoolClarets]

Modric was fabulous second half onwards. World class. Drifted into space. We couldn’t handle him.

Some bad choices by Southgate. Ball playing skills chosen ahead of defending. I’ve been saying it all season. Cahill for Stones (all three centre backs from Sheffield then, interestingly). Needed Wilshire in the squad too. Should also have gone to a back 4 when Croatia overran midfield.

Saying all that though it was great to watch England again, first time in 20 years, and Southgate did great overall.

[Rick_Muller]

I've just watched the World Cup catch up on BBC website and I noticed that when Kane hit the post the commentators said it was flagged for offside - but he wasn't offside. During the match, they revised it to be that the ball had gone out of play, and that is what the lino was flagging for. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if it wasn't offside, it should've been a corner as it came off the keeper after the post. No bitterness of course, just highlighting the fine margins as Southgate described it...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44802856" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;