OUT WITH HEADS HELD HIGH
Trippier’s strike has a nation dreaming, but clinical Croats bring Gareth’s band of brothers crashing back to earth
One lapse. That is all it takes in this rarest of atmospheres. Kieran Trippier lost his header to Ivan Perisic, Mario Mandzukic ran off John Stones, and england were out of the World Cup.
It took Croatia 109 minutes of football to take the lead against england, but they edged it in the end. They were the better team in the second half, they hit the post, Jordan Pickford made one magnificent save.
But let’s get one thing straight. england were not lucky to be here. They were not fortunate beneficiaries of a soft draw, or undeserving contenders for the 2018 World Cup. They were, in many ways, the best team here. not in football terms, or technical terms. no one is claiming they are a match for France, or even Croatia, the finalists. But as a team, a band of brothers, a group of players amounting to more than the sum of their parts, england were outstanding. There is no shame here, no failure.
england did as well as could possibly be expected given their youth, inexperience and the absence of a playmaker in the class of Luka Modric. Gareth Southgate, the manager, has done an exceptional job and the national team should be his to mould for another four years at least. He deserves that, and so do they, his loyal lieutenants.
Anyone who thinks england just got lucky doesn’t know football. This game was the proof of it. They battled Croatia to a standstill, both teams exhausted, all energy and emotion spent. They could not have given more, either of them, and that a single goal separated them is fitting. Better that than to lose on penalties and see that hoodoo return. That is another curse that has been lifted at this World Cup.
Credit Croatia, too. This was a spirited performance after two knockout games that have reached penalties. When england took the lead after five minutes, and dominated the opening 30, it would have been easy to be overwhelmed. Instead, they found a way back into the game through Modric and man- of- the- match Per i s i c , outstanding technical talents who point the way forward for Southgate and his men.
But they know that, having come so close. They know there is a missing link, and the next step is finding it. easier said than done.
Croatia were always going to be the strongest test england had faced in this competition to here, and so it proved.
If england had the upper hand for the bulk of the first half, the second — in its entirety — belonged to Croatia. This was the side england — the country, more than the team — feared. They controlled the ball in midfield through Modric, with Perisic quite brilliant coming in from the left. england looked ragged through that second 45 minutes, leggy, edgy, panicked.
In a seven-minute spell, Croatia took them apart, physically and technically. Poor Kyle Walker was struck a devastating blow in the crotch from a shot by Perisic, collapsed, and when the ball did not go out of play, got up to clear the recycled cross. Then he fell again. It was a heroic moment. Whether it played a part in what happened next is hard to say.
Three minutes later, Sime Vrsaljko hit a superb deep cross from the right and Perisic drifted off Trippier and attacked the ball. Walker went for a diving headed clearance but Perisic nipped in first and met it with a volleyed flick past Pickford. A high boot? Possibly, but Walker was stooping, so it was a judgment call. Referee
Cuneyt Cakir went with the scorer. To be fair, we would have moaned like hell had he disallowed one of ours like that.
The pressure was now unrelenting and yet there were moments when England’s strengths surfaced once more.
Substitute Marcus Rashford won a free-kick which Trippier curled in only for Harry Kane to steer a free header wide. The glorious fifth minute seemed an age away as the game moved into extra-time.
It is a very select group, those who have scored for England direct from free-kicks. Even more exclusive, the little club who have done it at a World Cup. It’s David Beckham, actually. Just him. One against Colombia, most recently against Ecuador in 2006. Still if he does ever decide to form an England World Cup Free-Kick Scorers Society at least he’ll have company at their annual ball. He’ll have Trippier after last night. It began when Dele Alli was fouled by Modric just outside the penalty area D. A trio of England players stood around the ball deliberating, but the suspicion always was that it would be Trippier’s responsibility at this range. He did not disappoint.
The whole Croatia wall jumped but somehow the Tottenham man got it up, over and down to leave Danijel Subasic grasping at thin air in Croatia’s goal. The ball passed over Dejan Lovren’s head on route. Not small, Lovren. It was a quite exquisite free- kick. Beckham would have been proud of it. So, for that matter, would Cristiano Ronaldo — or Roberto Carlos.
Five minutes is desperately early to take the lead in a World Cup semi- final. Better than going behind after five, obviously. But it’s an age to defendefend that lead and, as against Tunisiaia when this campaign - began, England squandered several chances to take the pressure off.
In the 14thh minute, a Trippier cornerer was met by Harryarry Maguire — whenen are they not? — and he steered his header low towards the far post. A touch from a lurker and England would have been two ahead but no one was there.
Then the chance that amazed and frustrated in equal measure. FrustrFrustrated because it was a genuinely good chachance missed by EEngland; amazed bbecause it was HHarry Kane who fluffed it. The pass from Jesse Lingard was perfect and suddenly Kane had only SSubasic to beat. He tritried to slot it past him and the whole stadistadium expected to see the ball come to rest in the goagoal, but no. Subasic saved and Kane scrambled desperately to be first to the rebound, now at an acute angle. He tried to whip it in but the ball hit the near post, came out, struck Subasic and spun across goal and out on the other side. The second chance was tough. But the first? In Kane’s world that was a sitter.
Six minutes later, England could have scored again. Alli, enjoying his best game of the tournament, was the provider, finding Lingard whose attempt to pass it into the net from the edge of the area was ambitious and travelled the wrong side of the post.
Of course, when Modric got on the ball so did Croatia, and he controlled the 10 minutes before halftime. It didn’t add up to much, though — an Ante Rebic shot comfortably saved by Pickford, and a few important interceptions by Ashley Young and John Stones.
In the 19th minute, a crossfield pass by Modric picked out Perisic, whose low shot went just wide, but England’s chances were better, and clearer. Not that this stopped the jangling nerves, mind you. But it is hard to imagine what would, at this late stage.