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It felt like watching a masterpiece shredded stroke by stroke before your very eyes. England’s dream of reaching their first World Cup final in over half a century was extinguished, and in those harrowing moments after the final whistle — as disoriented players drifted across the pitch like somnambulists wading through a nightmare — one could not help but wonder if this would become their life’s abiding regret.
In time, these players may look back on a tournament that subtly recast England’s image — from plodding artisans of anxiety-ridden football to a team suffused with fresh verve. But shaking off the trauma of this semifinal collapse will not be easy. They will forever carry the grim knowledge that the World Cup may never again arrange itself so invitingly, and that for a tantalising stretch, Gareth Southgate’s men convinced even the most sceptical among us that they might actually achieve it. Truly, they did.
Wonderful Croatia
Instead, it is Croatia who return to the Luzhniki Stadium, destined to meet France, and amid the English post-mortem it would be grossly unjust to overlook the iron-willed courage that defined Zlatko Dalic’s side. The defining act arrived in the 109th minute, courtesy of Mario Mandzukic — a striker hobbled by a ravaged knee. In many ways, that image encapsulates Croatia: a team that survived three successive knockout games through extra time, and which, barring sheer exhaustion, might yet carry football’s most glittering prize to a nation of just four million souls.
For England, it is the consolation of a third-place playoff against Belgium, an afterthought they will greet with the same hollow enthusiasm as Bobby Robson’s forlorn semi-finalists of 1990. Immortality, alas, is reserved for others. Moscow 2018 will now reside beside Turin 1990 in England’s archive of noble failures, grief etched most starkly on the face of Kieran Trippier. The full-back, who had ignited English hopes with his sumptuous free-kick, wept openly as he hobbled off after Mandzukic’s dagger to the heart. He knew the dream was gone.
Yet amid the ruin, Southgate and his team have achieved something quietly revolutionary: they have reshaped how England is perceived by the world. From a land of infighting and dreary entitlement has emerged a squad bound by evident brotherhood, comfortable in their own skin, their spirit brightened by humility. This England bends it like Trippier. This England has a colossus at the back, Harry Maguire, whose primary vocation is — in Southgate’s own words — to “get his bonce on everything.” This England, at long last, has restored pride to its people.
Still, Southgate had warned with sober honesty that his side remained imperfect, and it must have jarred him to witness how abruptly they ceded control midway through the second half. Until then, England had played with an authoritative conviction, suggesting this might become the grandest feat of any team since 1966. John Stones looked every inch the elegant centre-back England has craved for generations; Dele Alli improved markedly; Henderson marshalled midfield security; Maguire dominated. It was all there, fleetingly.
The Croatian Blow
But they failed to land the decisive second blow, and when Ivan Perisic conjured his audacious, airborne equaliser in the 68th minute — nipping ahead of Trippier and Kyle Walker to steer the ball past Jordan Pickford — the game irrevocably tilted. From then on, Croatia imposed themselves in ways both subtle and brutal. England still teased us with hope: Stones was denied by a desperate clearance off the line in extra time. Yet by then, for the first time in Russia, England’s defence seemed frail, their nerves shredding. Perisic struck the post, Rebic squandered a rebound. The siege was gathering.
It was doubly cruel given England’s first-half artistry: their tireless suppression of Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic, and the ecstasy, just five minutes in, when Trippier’s free-kick soared over a six-man wall, dipped, curled and kissed the underside of the bar. As broken as he appeared at the end, Trippier returns home a bona fide star.
But Southgate conceded that his team’s inexperience may have been their undoing. When Croatia pressed, England’s composure faltered. Clearances were snatched, judgment clouded. In the cold parlance of coaching, they lacked “game management.” Their shape dissolved, their threat dwindled. Harry Kane, destined to claim the Golden Boot, cut a paradoxical figure: lethal in statistics, but strangely muted in penetration. Sterling’s lively but erratic outing ended early; Lingard will replay that skewed first-half chance in his mind for years. Kane’s best moment was nullified by a borderline offside — perhaps it would have stood under VAR had he found the net instead of the post. But it is all mere conjecture now.
It fell instead to Mandzukic, Croatia’s battered warrior, to deliver the coup de grâce. Stones lost him for an instant, and that was enough for the striker to smash his shot home. England sought to rouse themselves, but momentum is a merciless force once surrendered. They will forever remember the night they led a World Cup semi-final — and let it slip.
“We all feel the pain,” Southgate admitted afterward. Football, once more, is not coming home.
Motivated Croatia Looks to Create History
Modric, meanwhile, was withering in his assessment of English arrogance. “They underestimated Croatia tonight — that was a huge mistake,” he said. “They should be more humble, show more respect. We dominated mentally and physically.”
Perisic, recalling his boyhood days cheering Croatia’s 1998 heroes in his village jersey, called it a dream fulfilled to score and propel his nation to their first final. Defender Sime Vrsaljko dismissed England’s new supposed sophistication, suggesting that once pressed, they reverted to old habits of long-ball desperation.
Dalic, for his part, spoke with an air of prophecy. “This tournament will be won by a team with character,” he declared. Croatia, 1-0 down in three consecutive knockouts, have woven history from grit and defiance. They are the first new finalists since Spain in 2010 — from a country barely 30 years into independence, now writing its own epic.
“This has been debated for 20 years,” Dalic said, invoking the ghosts of 1998. “Maybe God gave us this chance to settle it.”
So the dream shifts from Wembley to Zagreb. England are left to reflect on a campaign that reignited faith but ended in tears — a masterpiece half-finished, cruelly torn from the easel.
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