Russia v Croatia - QF - 7pm

[The Guvnor]

Well the Croatians bar Modric all looked shagged at the end of that , hopefully they wont have time to fully recover. Stop Modric from controlling the midfield and we win.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

Pleased Croatia got through

[KFS]

2 minutes ago, The Guvnor said:

Well the Croatians bar Modric all looked shagged at the end of that , hopefully they wont have time to fully recover. Stop Modric from controlling the midfield and we win.

We play 1 centre midfielder though. Could be a game to start Dier and Hendo together.

[TeePee]

Probably the best result for us tbh - a long, attritional game with Croatia just about squeaking through (I shouldn't need to tell anyone here about the power of momentum and what it's done for that Russian team), picking up a few bookings and knocks on the way.

[The Guvnor]

2 minutes ago, KFS said:

We play 1 centre midfielder though. Could be a game to start Dier and Hendo together.

Thats true we do leave spaces in midfield as we are predominantly attacking  midfielders, be interesting to see if Southgate changes things around.

[TheUltimateWinner]

7 minutes ago, Suzie the Fox said:

So happy we didnt get Russia, dont think they that good but didnt want that home team

 

 

Yeah with the home advantage and momentum I’d be wary of Russia... bullet dodged! I’m confident we can beat Croatia 

[DennisNedry]

ARE YOU KERMO IN DISGUISE?

[PhillippaT]

14 minutes ago, Carl the Llama said:

Last time Croatia got this far into a World Cup they got knocked out by the eventual winners.  Just saying...

Nooooooooo, this all happened due to forgetting the reverse psychology to begin with, dammit...  Don't go there

Edited 7 July 2018 by PhillippaT

[Jonezy]

Croatia has some exceptionel players, but they barely squeezed past Denmark and Russia winning both on penalty lottery. You should have these, well I bloody well hope so. 

Edited 7 July 2018 by Jonezy

[Blue ROI]

A good day for leicester on the world stage. 

 

The past(Kramaric), the present (Maguire} and the future (Vida?) all getting the goals. 

[Suzie the Fox]

13 minutes ago, TheUltimateWinner said:

Yeah with the home advantage and momentum I’d be wary of Russia... bullet dodged! I’m confident we can beat Croatia 

Bloody hope so., Im taking your confidence and putting it in a box and keeping it for the game ... And if you are wrong... Aggh .. wrath of a woman scorned and all that  

 

[gurru991]

Croatia still haven't played to their full potential yet, No walk in the park there.

[Jaspa]

1 hour ago, The Guvnor said:

Well the Croatians bar Modric all looked shagged at the end of that , hopefully they wont have time to fully recover. Stop Modric from controlling the midfield and we win.

He was blowing at around 80mins, that Vrsaljko looked half dead too. Really should be a great game, they're a proper team and if we turn up and give everything we're in a Final.

 

Bit strange to give the winner of France Belgium an extra days rest but they do have to fly across from St.Petersburg after that and our Semi is in the Finals stadium. This is absolutely absurd lads, what a week this could be.

 

Anyone but France

[martyn]

After the group stages if someone had said it'd be a Croatia v England semi final, I'd have heavily favoured Croatia.

 

After the last 2 games though, I'd say it's a much more difficult match to call. I've not been impressed by them in the knockouts at all, Modric has basically been running the midfield by himself - the only time Rakitic made his presence felt was come penalty shootout time and Mandzukic looks to be on the wane a bit. They've also had 2 tiring 120 mins in a row to contend with.

 

 

 

[HighPeakFox]

33 minutes ago, gurru991 said:

Croatia still haven't played to their full potential yet.

Have England though? I think not.

[gurru991]

20 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

Have England though? I think not.

I agree.  Just don't want to under estimate Croatia.

[Suzie the Fox]

56 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

Have England though? I think not.

 

35 minutes ago, gurru991 said:

I agree.  Just don't want to under estimate Croatia.

Thats a hard question.. have they played to their best potential? Well they have won the games so have done what has been needed to do. The old cliche ' you can only beat the team you play' is true. Against Sweden, we could have perhaps played better, but we did what we needed too, we broke them down and finished the game 2-0. and tbh i had very few bum clenching experiences. I always felt we would win.

 

Croatia will be a tough game, and tbh its not one i am looking forward to, i said earlier in the thread that we will lose the mid field battle if we play these guys and tonight sorta proved they are really strong in that department. 

 

I still think we will win, but it will be our hardest game so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gurru991]

1 minute ago, Suzie the Fox said:

 

Thats a hard question.. have they played to their best potential? Well they have won the games so have done what has been needed to do. The old cliche ' you can only beat the team you play' is true. Against Sweden, we could have perhaps played better, but we did what we needed too, we broke them down and finished the game 2-0. and tbh i had very few bum clenching experiences. I always felt we would win.

 

Croatia will be a tough game, and tbh its not one i am looking forward to, i said earlier in the thread that we will lose the mid field battle if we play these guys and tonight sorta proved they are really strong in that department. 

 

I still think we will win, but it will be our hardest game so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I agree.This is where Southgate shines, how he lays out the team to counter a stronger midfield will make or break us. I do believe we can beat them without having to go to pens

(my heart can't take too many shootouts) 

[Suzie the Fox]

Just now, gurru991 said:

I agree.This is where Southgate shines, how he lays out the team to counter a stronger midfield will make or break us. I do believe we can beat them without having to go to pens

(my heart can't take too many shootouts) 

Me to, im warming to Southgate so much. 

 

I honestly dont know what team i would put out to beat them now. But i THINK he is playing what he thinks is his best 11 and consistency is something not to be sniffed at.

 

Many people have QQ'd at Sterling and tbh i felt for the guy tonight to not score, but apart from the lack of goals, should we swap him out for Rashford? I dont know.

 

I think we will win and not from peno's. 

 

 

[HighPeakFox]

He'll play his equivalent of this:

 

Schmeichel

Simpson

Fuchs

Morgan

Huth

Kante

Drinkwater

Albrighton

Mahrez

Vardy

Okazaki

[Koke]

I missed this game but how did Croatia perform? Against Denmark they looked lethargic a d average, and made a pretty limited Danish side look good. Was it similar last night? 

 

I don't know what to make of Croatia. They have some decent players and can play football but they barely scraped by on penalties again st two poor sides.

[SpacedX]

9 hours ago, gurru991 said:

Croatia still haven't played to their full potential yet, No walk in the park there.

I'd say they performed pretty well against Argentina, but I agree, this will be the most challenging test yet. 

 

[TeePee]

46 minutes ago, Koke said:

I missed this game but how did Croatia perform? Against Denmark they looked lethargic a d average, and made a pretty limited Danish side look good. Was it similar last night? 

 

I don't know what to make of Croatia. They have some decent players and can play football but they barely scraped by on penalties again st two poor sides.

They made really hard work of it to be fair, and considering the talent they have, they maybe should have made an easier job of it than they did. Having said that, Russia played their hearts out, and Cheryshev's goal was a genuine worldie, not much anyone could have done about that. 

In good news (for England at least) - they really didn't look convincing at set-pieces, and the goal they conceded at the end of ET was really poor defensively. Think there were a few knocks picked up as well.