England wary of threat from Modric, Rakitic, Perisic

ENGLAND will be wary of the threat posed by veteran midfielder Luka Modric in their Fifa World Cup semi-final tonight (kick-off at 8pm, SS3).

Real Madrid playmaker Modric has been in sparkling form for Croatia, leading a midfield that includes Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitic and Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic.

“Modric is a fantastic player, but they have players around the squad who are going to be difficult opponents,” said England and Manchester United full-back Ashley Young.

“Croatia are a very good team. They are not in the semi-final for no reason. We have got to be prepared for them,” he added.

His teammate, Eric Dier, said before the match at Luzhniki Stadium that Croatia’s entire midfield deserved respect.

“Modric and Rakitic are world-class players in their positions who have been playing at an extremely high level for their clubs,” the Tottenham midfielder said.

“I’ve never played against Rakitic, so it’s difficult to observe much. But I’ve played against Modric twice this year and obviously everyone knows from his time in the Premier League that he’s a fantastic player. He can create magical moments and he’s been one of the outstanding performers so far in this world cup.

“Two great players -– everyone knows that, but hopefully we can do our job as a team and as individuals to contain them.”

Croatia are vying for a place in their first world cup final on July 15, while England are hoping to feature in the title decider for the first time since 1966.

“We are just focusing on the semi-final right now. Like we said before, we are just going game by game,” said Dier.

“We’re purely focusing on what is in front us and it will remain that way until Wednesday.” – IANS