MOD BOTHERER
England’s penalty hero Dier warns his side: I went up against Luka twice in the Champions League.. he can shatter our World Cup dream
ERIC DIER has warned England will face one of the best players in the world tomorrow night.
Dier tackled Croatia’s midfield kingpin Luka Modric twice last season – and the Real Madrid star is likely to be the biggest threat to England’s hopes of reaching the World Cup Final.
Ex-Tottenham star Modric, 32, played against Spurs in the Champions League. After a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu, Spurs won their group match 3-1 at Wembley.
But Dier insists they cannot take any comfort from that experience – because Real went on to win the trophy and Modric was the star of the Champions League final.
Modric is on a high (right with Dejan Lovren) after helping Croatia win a penalty shootout against Russia to book their semi-final spot.
He has been playing in a different, deeper midfield role in this tournament.
But he and Barcelona ace Ivan Rakitic have still been highly influential. England midfielder Dier (right, with Modric) said: “He is a great player, one of the best in the world.
“Whatever position, wherever he plays, it doesn’t make a difference to a player of that quality.
“As a team we are not focusing on individuals.
“We are purely focusing on ourselves and what we want to do as a team, and the collective is really the most important thing. If we are right collectively and defensively, then individuals don’t matter.
“But Modric is a worldclass player and extremely effective for his country, for his club – and he has been one of the best players at this World Cup. “He is someone we are aware of and we have to be ready to control him.
“At Spurs, we beat Real Madrid and they ended up winning the Champions League.
“So what happened in those two games is kind of irrelevant to what might happen on Wednesday.
“Both he and Rakitic are fantastic – world-class in their positions.
“They have been playing at an extremely high level
for their clubs. Rakitic at Barcelona, I haven’t played against him before, so it’s difficult to observe as much.
“But Modric is obviously known well from his time in the Premier League. He can create magical moments.”
Modric had four years at White Hart Lane before going to Madrid while, incredibly, Spurs have NINE players in the World Cup semi-final.
Dier is one of them for England along with Harry Kane, Danny Rose, Kieran Trippier and Dele Alli.
France are captained by Hugo Lloris – while Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen and Mousa Dembele are with Belgium.
Dier said: “There has been s o much work put in at the club to give us the platform to succeed. All nine of us are very grateful for that. It is difficult to think about anything else but the England set-up and that is purely what we are concentrating on.
“We are in a bubble and our focus is just on Wednesday.”