• England beat Croatia 1-0.

  • The men of Southgate thus take their revenge on their executioners in the semi-finals of the World Cup.

  • Proof that the English have crossed a course and the Croats lowered a tone.

In Wembley,

So it was more than an impression. When the Blues had found Croatia in the League of Nations and as insignificant as this competition may be, Luka Modric's teammates seemed to be sliding down a soapy slope a few months before the Euro. The trend was confirmed at Wembley on Sunday afternoon, where England certainly won by the smallest margin (1-0) but also demonstrated all its progress since its elimination in the semi-final by the same team three years earlier. In other words, the curves have crossed, and not just a little.

We did not have to wait before understanding where this part would lead us.

We barely had time to drool over the architecture of Wembley and to have fun with the return of the shirtless English supporters in the stands that Phil Foden sent a message in the form of a strike on the post of Dominik Livakvic (5th ) after a good service from Sterling and with the collaboration of the Croatian defense who will have well deserved the soap of his coach, Zlatko Dalic, in a press conference: “we conceded a goal on an error on our part that put me angry.

That was exactly what we shouldn't do in defense, because you know that's the kind of space Sterling and the others like to exploit.

"

English youth at their best

There is indeed something to infuriate about. On the opening of the score of Sterling, the latter finds himself alone in a chasm between the two central completely lost in front of the movements of the striker and the service of Kalvin Philipps, who had just crossed the Croatian medium like Moses. The performance of the Leeds midfielder - which we knew little about - did not escape Gareth Southgate, who had at least “two top-level passes in the back of the Croatian defense”.

The presence of the Zadist in the English midfield is one of the great novelties of the eleven of Southgate compared to that of 2018 (which included the Lingards, Alli and even Young) as well as those of his friends Philipps and Mount.

Big power-up for England in this sector, as these three have played a big part in the siege of the Croatian bloc, victim of its excessively low recovery line.

Here again, the English coach is full of praise.

“We did what we wanted in the dry cleaners.

We knew we had to be there physically, and the midfielders helped the defense a lot.

"

Better than that, the Three Lions have shown great progress in the management of the game against an opponent whose ball retention is the great strength - well especially that of Luka Modric.

And they are the ones who finish by a hair ahead of Croatia in terms of possession.

Croatia no longer has legs

We will still avoid looking too much at the stats tonight. Yes, the two teams finish with 8 shots including two on target each, but the attempts of the finalists of the last World Cup were never dangerous, where those of the English, even off target, were almost goals (in addition to the post of Foden Mount almost cleaned up the lulu on a free kick love). “We almost managed to take control of the game, but not enough, especially on the offensive side,” confirms Dalic. Sunday, there was too much waste and not enough ideas or combinations or races without a ball to disrupt the hyper disciplined English bloc.

Ah, yes, there is a number that we agree to look at tonight.

The English ran five more milestones than this aging Croatia.

Has his time passed?

Dalic refuses fatalism: “we keep a lot of optimism, we have the right to remain optimistic to try to do what is our objective: to qualify for the next round.

“Even in the ambitions, there is now a notch of difference between the two teams.

But more in the same direction.

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  • Luka modric

  • Sport

  • Euro 2021

  • Croatia

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  • Wembley