Who will follow France into the final? Croatia and England dream

The football world is watching the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow this evening. Croatia and England will compete in the Olympic Stadium from 20 p.m. (live in the SportNews ticker). The “motherland of football” has longed for a major World Cup success for a long time. The last time England reached the home World Cup final was in 1966. There they were crowned world champions for the first and only time with a victory over Germany (4:2 nV). At that time, Geoff Hurst's legendary Wembley goal to make it 3-2, a goal that wasn't a goal, was one of the decisive factors in the victory.

Croatia, on the other hand, has never been in a World Cup final. The last time they made it to the semi-finals was 20 years ago in France. The Croatians lost 1998-2 to France in 1. In the game for third place, Davor Suker and Co. got the upper hand against the Netherlands 3-2 and celebrated their biggest World Cup success to date.

This time Luka Modric and Co. want to go one better. The whole of Croatia dreams of winning against England. Since the successful quarter-final with a victory on penalties over hosts Russia, an entire country has been in a state of joy. But in England there has also been a state of emergency since the quarter-final victory over Sweden.

For the bookmakers, England goes into the game as slight favorites. Both teams were considered secret favorites before the tournament, and both have confirmed this more than expected so far. So close to the goal they still have something to lose, but also a lot to gain.

That speaks for Croatia In Luka Modric, coach Zlatko Dalic's team has perhaps the outstanding player of this World Cup. All attacks come from Real Madrid's clever and strong ball distributor, who also has an absolute world-class man next to him in Barcelona star Ivan Rakitic.

In attack, the 1998 World Cup third-place finisher has a good mix: the ripped-off former Bayern professional Mario Mandzukic, the powerful Ante Rebic from Eintracht Frankfurt and Hoffenheim's Andre Kramaric, who finds a gap in the tightest of spaces. In defense, Dejan Lovren (Liverpool FC) and Domagoj Vida (Besiktas Istanbul) are two experienced central defenders. That speaks for England The English have overhauled their football, incorporating the influences of top foreign coaches such as Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp. They have a lot of small blocks in their team, most recently there were three players each from Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur and two from Manchester United in the starting line-up. And after the era of dominant but oppressive leaders like John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, they now represent a real collective.

They finally have a really good goalkeeper in Jordan Pickford, a reliable goalscorer in Harry Kane and they can now even take penalties and are no longer afraid of them. Since they first had to play one game, they have one less extension than the Croatians. They also see this as a major advantage. The statistics Although the Croatians have less than 30 years of association history, both teams have already met seven times. Five of these games were competitive games, but none took place at a World Cup. They only met at a European Championship finals in 2004 on the last group match day. Croatia led through Niko Kovac, England won 4-2 thanks to two goals from Wayne Rooney and advanced. Both tournament participations were ruined once. England missed out on a ticket to the 2 European Championship with a 3-2008 defeat in the last group game in Croatia. And two years later, they denied Croatia a 5-1 direct result in the third-to-last game

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Who will follow France into the final? Croatia and England dream

While it would be the second final appearance for England after the title in 1966, Croatia is dreaming of the first final in the country's history.

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