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Semi Final 2: Croatia Vs England (ITV, KO @19:00)

Hodgy

By Hodgy,
in 2018 World Cup Forum

Who will win and go through to the World Cup Final?  

61 members have voted

  1. 1. Who will win?

    • Croatia
      23
    • England
      38

This poll is closed to new votes

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  • Poll closed on 11/07/18 at 18:00

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Pukey

Pukey

Posted
Posted

Hated the ref as well. Can't argue he had any impact on the result or anything but absolutely hate refs like him, just complete inconsistency throughout the whole game and a smug face while making crap decisions.

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westy8chimp

westy8chimp

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Mr Adam said:

World Cup semi finals you moron.

Never seen somebody so desperate for attention on this forums. At least others like superman have clearly been immature idiots. You seem like a sensible guy just desperate for attention. I hope you get what you need.

Oh so we didnt overachieve? So be personal instead :D

Croatia deserved it. 

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GunmaN1905

GunmaN1905

Posted
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Just now, Pukey said:

Hated the ref as well. Can't argue he had any impact on the result or anything but absolutely hate refs like him, just complete inconsistency throughout the whole game and a smug face while making crap decisions.

Yeah, one of those refs that wants the spotlight.

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Paul Bacon

Paul Bacon

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Redshift said:

More like our best players are forwards and attacking midfield players and to accommodate that we had to have one central midfielder and two wing backs supplying them. When those players forgot how to or couldn't supply our front players we had no other plan. But then it was kind of always like that because of the limited quality of the squad. I guess a lot of people forgot our limitations when we got to the semis.

Its easy to get carried away but yea we do have alot of limitations. The lack of bringing on subs suggests he doesnt trust then. Kane's movement is non-existent but does score goals tbf. Sterling has great movement but is a greedy bastard who just loses the ball. Shame we cant combine them

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GunmaN1905

GunmaN1905

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Posted

England played with basically one midfielder whole tournament long.

Both Alli and Lingard proved they offer nothing in defensive phase and keeping the ball back.

You can't leave Henderson alone against two of the world's best midfielders and a guy that can run forever.

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Pukey

Pukey

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Posted

Is westy seriously asking how a team that had one final and one semi final in world cups going into the tournament, no further than QF in any major competition for 22 years, and has generally embarrassed itself for the past couple of tournaments, has overachieved by getting to the semi finals for the first time in 28 years?

"Oh but look who we beat!" is literally the most irrelevant argument going. 

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themadsheep2001

themadsheep2001

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Bootador said:

No, we lost because Kane didn't pass the ball then.

Sterling coming off didn't help (as it didn't in any game he came off), but it's impossible to say what would have happened had he stayed on.

Can't fault where we have finished, but I feel we didn't make changes anywhere near quick enough. Learning curve for all involved for the next tournament

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Mr Adam

Mr Adam

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Personally, and again I like Sterling, I don’t think he did enough to stay on.

I’d have probably taken Alli off, but still don’t think it was a ridiculous decision that cost us the game. We needed fresh legs and it was a toss of a coin really.

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martynlcfc

martynlcfc

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Well deserved win for Croatia, by far the better side from 50 minutes onwards. We simply could find any way to wrest back control once they started putting the pressure on, got Modric into the game and got the fullbacks bombing on. 

No scapegoats, but Southgate got it wrong. Felt Delph or RLC was needed alongside Dier or Henderson to try and disrupt their midfield. Plus, we desperately needed Kane to hold it up and help us get up the pitch when the pressure came and he failed to do so. I understand why Southgate didn't do it, but the sensible football decision would have been to take him off after 70 odd minutes. At least if we were going to hoof it, we could have Vardy and Rashford turning those balls into a challenge for their defence.

Still, good tournament, and good to have a England side worth supporting.

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Thengil

Thengil

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Tbh I don't think three at the back was helpful in this game. Strinic is a **** left back and was exposed against Denmark and Russia. Having a winger and a fullback against him would have been more effective imo.

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kpain16

kpain16

Posted
Posted

Sorry people. I really feel for you. Really do. But you're football superpower. You have a young team and this is not the end of them. We're a tiny country with a **** league and this is insane. I still can't believe it. 

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Pukey

Pukey

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, kpain16 said:

Sorry people. I really feel for you. Really do. But you're football superpower. You have a young team and this is not the end of them. We're a tiny country with a **** league and this is insane. I still can't believe it. 

We're really not :D not internationally anyway.

But it is certainly an achievement for your country and I have zero animosity towards you. Overall the better team on the day.

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Baptista_8

Baptista_8

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, kpain16 said:

Sorry people. I really feel for you. Really do. But you're football superpower. You have a young team and this is not the end of them. We're a tiny country with a **** league and this is insane. I still can't believe it. 

Good luck buddy.

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grff

grff

Posted
Posted
Just now, kpain16 said:

Sorry people. I really feel for you. Really do. But you're football superpower. You have a young team and this is not the end of them. We're a tiny country with a **** league and this is insane. I still can't believe it. 

We aren't really a superpower at all these days. We have arguably the best league in the world but when we look at the depth of quality that is available for England selection then you realise how thin on the ground we are, especially as English players just don't play overseas.

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Mr Adam

Mr Adam

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, kpain16 said:

Sorry people. I really feel for you. Really do. But you're football superpower. You have a young team and this is not the end of them. We're a tiny country with a **** league and this is insane. I still can't believe it. 

Congratulations. I’m really happy for Croatia. Beautiful country and you’ve gone through a lot as a nation these last 30 years. A nice story for you and a good chance to make a memory of a lifetime.

Parts of me wants this to be the year Mbappe “lands”. But a Croatia world cup win would be special.

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Hodgy

Hodgy

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  • Author
Posted
12 minutes ago, westy8chimp said:

Yeah who would ever have imagine we could beat tunisia, panama, colombia (on pens) & sweden... 

 

8 minutes ago, westy8chimp said:

Explain how we overachieved? Played two teams we wouldnt expect to beat on paper (though argument to be made we are equal with them) and we lost both games. We won the games in which we were massive favorites. 

Youve got carried away with yourself

For all the nonsense you've posted previously regarding England I have to agree with the above!

We have overachieved when you compare to pre tournament expectations however considering who we've faced this tournament we have only done as expected.

We should be beating Tunisia, Panama, Colombia and Sweden and considering we scraped a last minute winner Vs Tunisia and had to go to pens Vs Colombia we haven't excelled, Panama was a walkover and Sweden were made for us.

I believe we bottled a major opportunity today and deep down most England fans know Southgate blew it, Young and either Alli or Lingard needed changing after around 60-70 mins and he just stupidly stuck to his guns, the draw will never open up like that again and we'll never have an opportunity as good to make a World Cup Final without having to beat a major nation, gutted to say the least and not best pleased, simply, we blew it!!!

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daylight

daylight

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, celtic_fc said:

Remember that time England almost reached a World Cup final?

This is beautiful. 

It really would have been the most undeserved final appearance I can remember. 

I thought the fans this time were refreshing but during the last couple of games the usual whining and complaining came out.
I really don't see England will ever get this chance again, at least not in my lifetime.

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Redshift

Redshift

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7 minutes ago, celtic_fc said:

Remember that time England almost reached a World Cup final?

This is beautiful. 

You weren't confident enough to make an ABE thread this year though. ;)

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Baptista_8

Baptista_8

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Just now, themadsheep2001 said:

Still don't get why we didn't drop in someone like Delph for this game.

Yep definitely. At least have brought him on.

I can't help thinking what if with that Kane chance 😣 Also...the booking is what shook Walker up, but he never should have been booked as he was fouled as he conceded that throw-in.

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toon_84

toon_84

Posted
Posted

England had their faults today but I thought Croatia were fantastic. Their coaches must have really done their homework. Don't give away too many set pieces and we've got this game won. Keep on your toes and we'll nick something.

England hardly had any set pieces and I lost count of how many times they switched off. 

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Rio_V

Rio_V

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4 minutes ago, themadsheep2001 said:

Still don't get why we didn't drop in someone like Delph for this game.

Agreed. It was odd. There were clear signs by minute 55-60 that a change needed to be made. Dier. Delph. Maybe both. I don’t think the Rashford sub was smart either. Sterling was best player coming forward. Should have stayed on. 

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Baptista_8

Baptista_8

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3 minutes ago, toon_84 said:

England had their faults today but I thought Croatia were fantastic. Their coaches must have really done their homework. Don't give away too many set pieces and we've got this game won. Keep on your toes and we'll nick something.

England hardly had any set pieces and I lost count of how many times they switched off. 

Apart from the fact we could have had the game to bed by HT with one clear cut chance (Kane) and another strong chance (Lingard).

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av3ry

av3ry

Posted
Posted

Do we all want to win the bronze medal? Better than nothing I suppose, although it pretty much killed the Netherlands who having been shocking since their bronze four years ago.

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grff

grff

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, toon_84 said:

England had their faults today but I thought Croatia were fantastic. Their coaches must have really done their homework. Don't give away too many set pieces and we've got this game won. Keep on your toes and we'll nick something.

England hardly had any set pieces and I lost count of how many times they switched off. 

Agreed. Croatia could've easily buckled after barely being in it first half but they showed almost total control in midfield from then on. We just weren't able to hold the ball in midfield like Modric/Rakitic could which dictated how the game was going to go.

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