It is now time to switch to a new Money AM football blog as the world cup is now over and we all look to the future.....World cup 2010 is over, Bravo Espana, and Forlan, once again and bring on the new season !.....I never expected the last thread to be such a success...thanks all.... so this new one might go on for years without the need to edit the title...we shall see...

I think Sweden wins the prize for the prettiest women in the crowd this world cup....

Didier Deschamps has had a change and instead of being "le porteur d'eau" now reminds me of "le petit caporal"......no not Adolf.....the other one....you know....:...that genius troublemaker that came from Corsica and conquered Europe....(well not quite...)….all the way to Russia....

England to win I just can't see the Croatians having enough...even Stirling could score against that lot if selected.

ED. Dil, thank you for your kind words, trust you are wearing your waistcoat tonight? -):

England fantastic first 20 mins , Croatia all over us for the last 70. Sat back as usual.
We should be on the coach home.

Does our manager have the skills to pull off weak players? and put fresh legs on. 2-1 oh dear.

Will it be 3-1?

Gutted......we missed some first half chances.....I thought then we rue that.....not enough punch tonight the three Lions......done us proud though !....

Harry looked tired .

Just a lack of quick forward interchanging/passing and the England players also needed to sort out the dreadful back passes.....they will be back because they are a very very talented side....

Croatia looked less tired, which is a bit odd as England team are fresher and have played less minutes up to now!
Far too much passing back to Pickford, imo.
Really good effort though and credit to GS!

He's done really well....more composure and player awareness of teammates just behind when in font of goal....these little oops can be worked on....congrats to Croatia by the way !....

Hate to put this on here....but here goes...
How many times have England lost in the semis in World cups and the Euro/nations cup in total ?.....answer is Four !
1968 to Yugoslavia(nations cup).....1990 to Germany(WC)....1996 to Germany(Euros) …(sigh)...and of course today to Croatia.....

Must admit, the best side won.

Yes. Harry Kane did look a bit 'tired' throughout the match. He was carrying a massive mental load, I think.

We were utterly marvellous for the first 20-30 minutes and then the reality, that we hadn't scored a second goal in that time seemed to affect the team's whole mentality and a kind of 'struggle' began.

We did seem to miss out on several free kick awards in the latter part of the game and this translated into worsening the team's mental struggle. Realisation, that we now might well have gone as far as we were actually going to go also seemed to kick in. This meant our 'moves' lacked charismatic effort and a bit of rot seemed to set in.

Then Croatia snatched victory, just a little while after also actually 'hitting the post'.

We were done! We'd lost to Croatia, 2-1.

The England team were marvellous! They will be given a massive welcome home.

Yes, Sir! Respect.

And more to come in the near future, for sure.

Damn it!

I failed to mention Trippier's utterly incredible free kick which initially soared over the heads of all the tallest opposition players in the wall and then dipped at least a couple of metres below the bar into the back of the net. The Croation goal-keeper didn't stand a chance of saving it.

4 minutes into the match and we were a goal up already.

Fantastic! Well worth chucking a pint of lager into the air for - and tens of thousands of young Englishmen up and down the country obviously did.

Here is Hyde Park's celebratory effort

Oh dear bottled again at that semis.

BBC be re running it for gawd no how many years and your next door neighbor smallest populated country to ever reach a semi at a major tournament never get a mention !!


And u can't understand why we don't really support you while supporting each other ???

BBC breakfast tomorrow going to be so funny

Ffs be happy you beat Tunisia Panama and Sweden in 90 minutes and the mighty Columbia on penalties .... Rejoice :-)

England are suffering from some sort of "semi-final syndrome" that's for sure......what on earth happened in the second half when they just stopped playing ?....with loads of crazy backpasses to Pickford....

I think GS ought to say ….we shall rest a few players for Saturdays match against Belgium....but then field a very strong one.....I mean it would be nice to win that match....and let's take the shackles off the players.....this is very much an important one and the the preparation for the Euros and whatever this new-fangled competition that Fifa have dreamed up...(haven't the foggiest idea how that will work)…..starts right now !.....(the semis and final are all at Wembley in two years time !)….

Slo-mo shows Kane's Wednesday night shot was not 'off-target' but was actually brilliantly saved by Croatian goalkeeper, Daniel Subasic:

https://www.caughtoffside.com/2018/07/14/slo-mo-video-shows-harry-kane-did-not-miss-sitter-vs-croatia/



If the shot had been successful, it would have put us 2-0 up. Ah well.

Anyhow, Kane didn't miss this close range shot. It was actually stupendously saved.

Need to improve the midfield play England.....done well to get to the semis ...and really should have got to the final....bad defensive play cost us yesterday and not good enough in front of goal also.....