England knocked out after semi-final loss to Croatia

Aside from Modric’s unique set of skills they have quality in practically every position, with Ivan Rakitic and Mario Mandzukic also key to their hopes of reaching their first final. It’s great for them that they’ve got some enjoyable experiences now playing for England.

The winning team will now go through to the final on Sunday, to play France – a team that will have been watching Wednesday’s long and gruelling match eagerly after its 1-0 victory over Belgium on Tuesday.

With time running out and pressure mounting, England charged forward and their all-time top World Cup scorer Gary Lineker snatched an 80th minute equalizer to send the game into extra time.

But the dearth of England supporters means chants of soccer anthem “Three Lions” and its catchy chorus “it’s coming home” may be hard to discern in Moscow despite a last-minute dash to the Russian capital by some supporters.

England broke their record for goals at a single World Cup as Kieran Trippier opened the scoring in their semi-final defeat to Croatia.

It’s the third consecutive game the Croatians have taken a game to extra time.

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic made one change from the side which beat Russian Federation on Saturday with Marcelo Brozovic coming in for Andrej Kramaric.Croatia got off to the worst possible start when in just the 5th minute Kieran Trippier curled in a free kick to the top right corner from just outside the box to give England a 1-0 lead.

Ivan Perisic worked tirelessly throughout the 120 minutes, and his goal sparked a Croatian comeback.

He managed to carry on after treatment, and he was on hand to sweep the ball low past Pickford after Perisic’s header back into the area caught the England defence on the hop to finally decide a brilliant contest.

Mandzukic scored after Walker stuck out a leg to block Josip Pivaric’s cross. Mandzukic is a nightmare to play against, as Harry Maguire, John Stones and Kyle Walker found out.

Mandzukic was mobbed by teammates, who jumped on him in the corner and trapped photographers under them in the crush. It’s Trippier! His first ever England goal. Dejan Lovren and Danijel Subasic are both injury doubts but are expected to recover in time to feature.

England’s last appearance at this stage was in 1990 when they lost in a penalty shootout to West Germany in Turin while eight years later, in their first World Cup as an independent nation, Croatia lost to hosts and eventual winners France.

If Gareth Southgate can avoid a similar fate, he may have to amend his official title to include the prefix “Sir” in the Queen’s end of year honor list.

Minutes earlier Kane had been left one-on-one with Subasic but put his strike wide, although he had been flagged offside.

David Beckham wrote on Instagram: “Come on boys believe this is our moment”.

Defender Vrsaljko was also instrumental, clearing a shot off the line in the first half of extra time as well as setting up Perisic’s equaliser.