England were generally toothless in general play throughout the tournament. Their strength was set pieces where they had a phenomenal conversion rate. Best by far of all the teams. I'm not surprised they scored from a free kick and had other good chances from corners and free kicks. Croatia were far better in possession than England all game. Apart from that England had great speed which caused the Croats problems. An advantage they'd not have against France. I give them lots of credit because nobody expected anything from them. But they are a B grade team at their peak. They can't use the ball and create like the best teams can, but this is still a very young team. But France would have torn them to pieces. Way too fast, too creative, tall, strong and can score from anywhere. Croatia are going to have a hard game. Hopefully their striker is fit for the final.
mozart
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Equally youthful England were unable to mount much of an attack today....a whole bunch of perfectly ordinary players like Linguard, Sterling and Youngs were preferred to better alternatives. Disbelief was suspended because of the Southgate mystique.....but today the team looked truly clueless, with Kane playing an odd Messi like role, when he really is more of a Diego Costa.
I read lots of hyperbole about this English WC...but in all honesty, they faced only two quality teams, Belgium and Croatia and lost to both.
But the Croations had to work pretty hard after conceding a soft early goal....and even though that was Englands whole story, they tried pretty hard.
So I guess France are clear favourites on Sunday....with Griesman and Giroud providing a ceativity in the goal mouth that England lacked. And Mbape's pace could test the older Croation backs.
Still the golden generation have some canny players and wont go down easily.