I am proud of the young England team, but I won’t let that stop me saying it as I see it. I thought they really let themselves down last night. A world cup final place was there to be taken and they didn’t take it.
I was confident before the match that we were better than a Croatia team who, bar a great performance against Argentina, have been average this tournament (and are lucky to get to the semis after being outplayed by an average Denmark team and being taken to pens by a weak Russia team). My biggest fear was that the “Argentina” Croatia team would turn up. They didn’t and were poor in the first have and should have been put to bed. They slightly improved in the second half, but did nothing special and never really played when they got their undeserved equaliser. Still, Croatia were far from anything special and their game plan was just to keep the ball at a slow slow pace, which we allowed them to do. There can be no excuses about tiredness (Croatia have played more minutes than us and are far older), weather (it wasn’t warm), or the ref (who wasn’t great, but didn’t give any major decisions against us).
Like all, I’d have taken a semi final performance before the tournament, but had someone said, after a weak geoup, we’d face poor sides in Colombia and Sweden, an average Croatia side in the semis and a far from great France side in the final, I’d have been gutted not to reach the final and disappointed not to win it.
Yes, the team are young and will be stronger next time. However, if we progress, we we won’t be playing weak teams in the last 16 and QF, an average side in the semi and the chance to play a beatable side in the final.
My abiding memory will be a missed chance and disappointment and the thought of how lucky Croatia are to be in the final.
So let’s congratulate England and show pride in the young team, but bus parades and street parties, like 1990 where we were unlucky to go out against a brilliant Germany team, are not warranted (and would be embarrassing), .