If England lads have learned anything it’s that Modric is world-class benchmark
FINAL WORD
WHEN Jordan Henderson and Dele Alli look at Luka Modric, they should be thinking to themselves: “That’s the player I want to be.”
Because I can’t think of a midfielder who has had a better 12 months than the diminutive Croatian playmaker.
He dictated the Champions League final for Real Madrid against Liverpool in Kiev a few weeks ago.
And even though he didn’t have a great first half against England, it was his cajoling, his pushing from the interval onwards, that took his nation into their first World Cup final.
He’s practically peerless in terms of his ability to run, tackle and pass.
When people say it was men against boys during the semifinal, he was the ultimate man.
Exceptional
I don’t usually get too impressed with players because my benchmark is Zico at the 1982 World Cup in Spain and Diego Maradona four years later in Mexico.
So in terms of what represents exceptional quality, my bar is very, very high. But goodness me, from half-time onwards Modric wasn’t far from that level.
I never expected him to be this influential when he left Tottenham for Real Madrid – but he has been incredible and is now genuine world class.
He was like a conductor on Wednesday, commanding his team to stay in England’s half, to push them back and to keep pressing. That led to the equaliser and ultimately the winner.
It was a sublime performance from Modric and compatriots.
Not least from goalkeeper Danijel Subasic, who has also been one of the stars of this World Cup. A lot of us expected Manuel Neuer and David De Gea to give us the goalkeeping masterclasses.
But it was Subasic and others in the last four – Hugo Lloris, Jordan Pickford and Thibaut Courtois – who did that. Despite