Revenge on Croatia would cap sweet year

next summer. Croatia broke English hearts in July’s Moscow semi-final and head to Wembley tomorrow in a winner-takes-all encounter which will settle relegation from Group A4 as well as the winner.

Progress to the Nations League finals from a group including Croatia and Spain would be quite a feat and another promising sign of progress.

“We were very keen that we moved on from the World Cup as quickly as possible,” Southgate said.

“It has been a brilliant year. Whatever happens on Sunday, we’ve had real shoots of progress and achieved some outstanding results and really good performances and blooded a lot of new players.

“It’s given us a real depth to the squad and competition for places.

“But I think everybody wants to go another stage and get to a semi-final out of a group which is as tough as there has been in this competition.”

England deserved to win last month’s meeting against Croatia, but the eerie behind-closed-doors clash in Rijeka ended goalless.

Southgate’s men went on to secure a memorable 3-2 win in Spain, who Zlatko Dalic’s men shocked by the same scoreline in Zagreb on Thursday evening to leave tomorrow’s match on a knife-edge.

“We’ve got two days to prepare, so it was one of the reasons we played the team we did tonight,” the England boss said after his ex- perimental side overcame the United States 3-0 in a friendly at Wembley.

“We know pretty much all there is to know about Croatia - most importantly that their desire, their mentality is brilliant.

“They’ll enjoy coming to Wembley, they’ll look forward to that. We knew the game at home for them without a crowd was probably as difficult for them as it was for us. But coming to a full house at Wembley, they’ve got big players that will relish that challenge.”

Score to settle: Gareth Southgate