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...

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.....

France should win ….might not be the walk in the park expected...I'm wondering if this Croatia side might put up very stiff resistance for most of the game......

Well done France!

8-)

Yep...bravo France....but have to feel a bit sorry for Croatia as the ref was pretty hopeless....endless mistakes....but overall if you cover the whole world cup...les Bleus deserve it so once again Bravo !....and well done Harry Kane...!...

What is this Var system about ?....its far from perfect as it seems to confuse refs....you have to take into account the speed of the ball...not just the slow replay.....

There should be two awards for the goal of the tournament...one for a team effort....one for an individual goal.....my best is the one when I think it was a Portugese defender scored ….from the outside of his foot and it curled round a block of defenders....will have to research it.....anyway it was fantastic.....

Imo that was a penalty

Clearly the opinion too of the VAR panel and the officiating ref

His hand went to the ball

One of the most difficult penalty decisions to have to make for sometime I thought which is why the ref took so long.

Whilst the arm did come down to meet the ball the hand was floppy and not firm which if
intentional would have been firm.

On first viewing I thought no penalty and still do, but as I say not easy.

Glad France won in the end as less cynical then the Croatians in the tournament.

Thought it was a really good WC as far as attacking football is concerned.

I agree, great competition this time.
2022 is in Qatar(?) in the winter, during northern hemisphere football season!

From a brilliantly successful World Cup in 2018 then to it being an absolute disaster in 2022?

Hmmm?

Didn't like the style of refereeing; lack of yellows for stopping players on the break - allows teams poor against the counter to reduce the risk by foul means.

England:

Someone who brings the ball out without knowing the exits isn't a ball playing defender. Someone who can't defend isn't a defender. Too much weight given to an illusion.

When the opposition begin getting to your back line with increasing frequency you look at your system; a one for one swap in midfield was a mistake.

The winners, France, the best of a bad lot.