World Cup 2018 - Game 62 - England run out of steam, lose to Croatia 2-1

Cancel the parades, Croatia ruined the whole "It's coming home" bit. England was in a frenzy; this team was gonna do it. Nothing wrong with national pride, but people may have missed the big picture while they were planning all the England World Cup victory parties. England had a great World Cup. Realistically, this team should not have performed as well as it did. England was built for upcoming tournaments; Euro 2020 and World Cup 2022. This is a young team with only two players over the age of 30. Look out in two years time.

Croatia has been running all over the place and have been led by players all over the age of thrity; Ivan Strinić, Ivan Rakitić, Luka Modrić, and Mario Mandžukić. That experience plus some fantastic young players have made for a good mix. Youth vs experience in this match-up.

England came out firing and went on top at 5'. Defender Kieran Trippier scored off a free-kick outside the box from the center, right over the semi-circle. He got it over the wall and curled it into the right corner. Beautiful! Both sides traded chances after that. At 68', Šime Vrsaljko sent a long cross into the center of the box over the head of Mandžukić, but right to the head of Ivan Perišić. Tie game. Perišić almost put away England at 72', but he hit the post. We went to extra time. John Stones got his head on a corner at 99' that was destined for the net, but was headed away by Vrsaljko. So close! Perišić and Mandžukić almost linked up at 105'. The end came at 109' and it was Perišić and Mandžukić again. Perišić back headed a ball that had been deflected in the box. The England defense let up for a split second, it got by them, went right to Mandžukić who pounced, and he put it past Jordan Pickford. Poor defending there. Game over.

France v Croatia in the World Cup Final. That should be an excellent game. Both teams are fast and creative, so it anyone's game. I think France is marginally better, but it would be nice to see a new country win it. It would be so huge for Croatia. England are relegated to the meaningless Third Place game against Belgium. I wonder how many first team players won't be starting this game? Just do away with it.

Again, congrats to England for going this far. This team will be fine and will be fun to watch going forward. European football is going to be pretty exciting in the next four plus years. Think about it; a young, experienced France, England, Belgium, and Germany along with a young Italy and Netherlands. Looking forward to it.