Croatia dig deeper to advance in epic contest as opportunity that will haunt players

IN the end, it wasn’t England’s redemption story, but Croatia’s.

They had that bit more nous, that bit more energy, that bit more quality and now one more game, as they make their first ever final.

That is really the story of this game, too. There will be a lot of questions and discussion over whether England should have pressed home when in the lead, over John Stones’ struggle with that final fateful ball for Mario Mandzukic’s winner… and while they are fair discussions they would not be fair conclusions.

They will be hindsight’s more laboured look at a semi-final that in real time pushed both teams to their hugely admirable limits. That’s how moments like the winning goal happen, that’s how legends are made. That is the pity for England, the glory for Croatia.

This is the real glory of the World Cup; why it is so intensely involving.

The natural ebbs and flows of any football match cease to be ebbs and f lows in such a knock-out, but instead become serious tests of the mettle of every player involved. You don’t get another chance to deal with it, or learn from what went wrong.

It’s adapt or sudden death.

It’s why players aren’t so much making blocks, but looking to force their body towards the ball with every element of their being.

It’s not that the game is ebbing and flowing, it was that the different stretches in play were stretching them to the limit.

This match went through three distinct phases.

The first stage – which was really the first hour – saw everything go right for England, Gareth Southgate’s entire gameplan pay off, and that was what made the second stage all the more testing and the final score all the more frustrating. Everything fell for England, even when it fell into the problem area of midfield.

It wasn’t just that England’s opening goal of course came from a set-piece, but that first set-piece came from a break in midfield – and from punishing the one type of player Southgate doesn’t have.

After Croatia had spent the first five minutes casually playing the ball about, Dele Alli honed in on Luka Modric, won the ball and surged forward. Modric was confronted with a new problem that he didn’t seem to know how to deal with, other than to take the England playmaker down. Up stepped Trippier, and in went the ball.

It wasn’t England’s typical set-piece, and it wasn’t a typical strike giving its stunning quality, but it was all part of the same framework; the same system.

It also further played into England’s feet, because it meant they had less need for possession. Croatia actually had to turn that ‘control’ into something constructive.

Except there were long periods when they couldn’t even construct a simple passing passage. The game hadn’t even got to the half-hour and Modric and Sime Vrsaljko had already messed up the same move three times, the playmaker badly overhitting a pass. When Vrsaljko then attempted to cut a ball back from the edge of the box, it only ended up with the wing-back berating his team-mates because they’d ran too far ahead.

The situation seemed to be getting to a jaded Croatia and, when they did finally get in behind, there was a full-on and fully focused English block or challenge.

England’s passing was so much more disjointed here than it has been elsewhere in the tournament, why they so often took so long on the ball that Croatia – playing at normal speed – were simply able to take it off them.

That ability to pace themselves, to modulate that ticking metronome in their minds, has been part of England’s progress to this point. They took their time before stepping up for their penalties against Colombia. They weighted their passes just enough to commit opponents.

Probably, they assumed it would all work just as well here. But under the twin assaults of creeping fatigue and extreme stress, England lost their internal rhythm, and never really got it back.

The fallout will doubtless be long and severe. England’s attacking blossom shrivelled to a husk in the second-half, their gameplan seemingly resembling a Swiss army knife where every device was a long ball into the channel.

The missed chances in the first-half – by Harry Kane most notably – will haunt them for weeks, perhaps years. But in many ways, this is the point. The shadows and shapes of this game, the colours and apparitions and reverberating noises, will stay with England’s players for the rest of their lives.

But, there were moments to remember.

Trippier’s free-kick. What a hit that was! Can you imagine the sheer joy of pulling off something like that in a game of this magnitude? Can you imagine what it was like in the middle of that giant pile-on as Trippier was engulfed by delirious teammates? It looked like the moment when the wave that had been building since Kane’s last-minute winner against Tunisia would carry England to face France and a major tournament final for the first time since 1966.

The fact that England might not be in a position like this again for many years shouldn’t detract from the achievement of being in this position.

The fact that pre-season training has already started and soon the summer’s euphoria will give way to the falling leaves and familiar tribal rhythms of club football doesn’t change the fact that for a month, these excellent young men reached into their bodies and souls, and gave a nation back its team.

The years of hurt continue. However, for so many, it was fun dreaming. (© Independent News