England v Croatia

Looking back on it we should've buried them in that first half. I really feel that if we'd gone 2 up that would've been game over. Still don't see why Kane didn't just square it for Sterling to have a tap in.

Been a lot of talk about Russian doping, fitness levels etc but after going to extra time and penalties in both of their knock out matches, Croatia still looked miles fitter than us in the second half and then in extra time last night.

Team of mostly average players, a couple of quality players with the chance of a lifetime. Sadly we didn't have the players good enough to take advantage.

The right-back, Vrsaljko, said after the game:

“The all-round perception was that this is a new-look England who have changed their ways of punting long balls upfield but when we pressed them it turned out that they haven’t.”

Some truth to this. In the first half it made us move the ball faster, and we looked dangerous with our pace. Second half, the midfield completely disappeared and we just smashed it up there. We were totally unable to keep the ball. The top sides can always keep it to relieve a bit of pressure. We reverted to type.

I thought the system was effective, but we saw that when the team goes deeper it became less so. It depends a lot on always having a threat. Southgate will now do the analysis I'm sure and tweak things. This isn't the last stand of the side given its youth and there are some decent players who can come in and enhance it. We have a lot to be positive about, but this was a great chance and you have to take your chances when they come.

I think the third place game has some importance still. It is further experience and by winning it England could have the best result of an England team since 66. I hope it is taken seriously.

Was gutted last night and still reflecting this morning on what could've been but the reality is that there are so many positives to come out of the tournament.

We far exceeded expectations
The whole country got behind the team
We're now proud of our national team again after the Euro 2016 shambles
We had the second youngest squad in the tournament
Players like Maguire, Trippier and Henderson showed they belong on the international stage
Southgate, a manager who many weren't convinced by, is now a national hero.
Kane will win the golden boot
And lastly even our notoriously harsh national press, are all praising the team/squad today.

Can I go back to calling Southgate a Palarse bstd

Vital experience for the players. We also have players coming through to fully develop the system that Southgate wants.

After a night's sleep I woke up not feeling too bad - much better than how I felt in 1990.

Positives:

The nation came together, even if only for a brief few weeks.
We've restored some pride after the debacle in the Euros.
This young team will get better for the experience.
We have some very promising youngsters coming through.

Perspective:

We won one more game (Sweden) than most people expected before the tournament started.
We desperately need to find our Modric or Pirlo - creativity sadly lacking.


Onwards and upwards to the Euros with Southgate in charge for the foreseeable future.

RodneyCharltonTrotta said:

Wonder if this is the 1990 team for the younger generation

That's exactly what my eldest said to me last night - "this is our 1990"

DamoNorthStand said:

Alarm goes off at quarter past six and the current feeling is I feel ten times worse now than I did last night.

We could have been looking forward to the World Cup Final and there is a very good chance I will never see this chance again in my lifetime

If anything this has proved to me that there's a real possibility we could. If we take self belief with pressure and expectation there's no reason why England can't one day.

Who would have thought we'd have got to semis or Croatia would be in the final.

Croatia have proven themselves as the Extra Time warriors. They've won every game that has gone there.

We were unlucky on the night to not be 3/4-0 up at half time. Think that intensity in the first half was our undoing. We didn't have the subs to keep that going.

nth london addick said:

We will be in the final and when there we will win the World Cup

that’s the bottom line cos NLA said so

There goes the 100% record ;-)

Haven't caught up with this thread yet. I can't help feeling that Southgate was outdone tactically last night.

All the talk before the game was about them pushing their fullbacks and wingers up on our wingbacks and causing an overload. Southgate had to find a way to deal with this before the game.

They didn't do this first half and we looked comfortable. Second half from the very first move it was clear they had made the decision to do this. Fair enough you don't need to change things straight away give it time and see how the system deals with it. After about 10 mins it was clear we were losing the battle. They were all over our wingbacks and were 2 on 1 with them regularly. This prevented them from getting up and down the pitch as they have done so well all tournament. So that meant in attack we had no width and in defence we had the midfield 3 trying to cover the whole width of the pitch and help pick up one of the side men as well as deal with their world class 2. We were losing the midfield battle. It needed a tactical switch. Either a temporary move like swapping sterling to the left to pick up one of the side men until we had weathered the storm. Or switching to a back 4 to match them. At the very least we could have used RLC as some fresh legs in midfield as it was clear Ali and Lingard were struggling to get wide quick enough. Something had to change and it didn't. We allowed them to overrun us in midfield for too long and they made us pay for that.

Kane sat too deep all match

It definitely doesn’t hurt like 1990

oohaahmortimer said:

Chances like that to get to a World Cup Final come along once in a lifetime.

I think they happen more often than people think - 1990, Belgium and Cameroon before a difficult semi final, 2002 teams going out left, right and centre. Euro 2016 is another example, Portugal's side of the draw.

In the last 20-25 years teams like Sweden, Romania and Turkey have reached semis without playing anyone great.

Lopsided draws will happen more often in 24 team Euros and 48 team World Cups too.