Southgate’s Side Triumph

The semi-finals for the 2018 FIFA World Cup have been set in stone, with two of the places being reserved for European dark horses England and Croatia. Both sides came through tricky tests in the quarter-finals, although one was a little bit more convincing than the other. The Three Lions got the day going against Sweden, in a game that many were pinpointing as a potential banana skin courtesy of the Swedes’ defensive structure throughout the tournament thus far.

Alas, they needn’t have worried, with England completely controlling the tempo of the game from the first minute until the very last. Raheem Sterling pulled their centre-backs out of position at will, Harry Kane’s hold-up play was fantastic, and Sweden were unable to offer anything going forward in response. Harry Maguire made the pressure count just after the half-hour mark with a bullet header, giving England the lead they thoroughly deserved.

England needed a second goal to really rubber stamp their dominant play, and they got it when Dele Alli broke free at the back post and calmly headed them into the semi-finals. The English haven’t found themselves at this stage of an international tournament in over 20 years, with their last appearance in the final four of a World Cup taking place in 1990. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the year that football does indeed come home after all these years of waiting.

The Hosts Bow Out

Coming into this tournament, Russia and Croatia had two very different mentalities: the hosts just wanted to ensure they didn’t embarrass themselves, whereas the Croats wanted to try and make the most of their golden generation before it was too late. Both teams did exceptionally well to reach such a late stage of the competition, but as we all know, it was Croatia who managed to come away with the victory after a dramatic showdown that wound up going to a penalty shootout.

Denis Cheryshev opened the scoring with an absolutely outrageous finish after a neat passage of play, but the lead only lasted eight minutes as Kramaric managed to head home to level things up. The game went into a stalemate of sorts from that point on and the two sides couldn’t be separated after 90 minutes, although in the 100th minute, it seemed as if Vida had put Croatia into the semi-finals with a dramatic late goal.

Figueira Fernandes managed to cancel that out five minutes before the end of extra time, ensuring that penalty kicks would decide who went through to the final four – and in the end, Croatia were the ones who walked away with their arm raised.

Now it’s time to turn our attention towards England vs Croatia, as one of these two teams will be taking part in the World Cup final next weekend. Both will be extremely confident after the success they’ve enjoyed at the tournament thus far, but in our mind, it wouldn’t be all too surprising to see captain Harry Kane kicking things off with a goal in the semi-final.

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