There were jubilant scenes in the Croatian camp as the country reached their first-ever World Cup final on Wednesday at the Saint Petersburg Stadium in Moscow. A nation with the mere population of 4,000,000 had made it into the final of the biggest sporting event on earth.
Despite all the romanticism around Croatia, they have not exactly punched above their weight. They have world-class players in the squad with Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic, Maro Mandzukic and Dejan Lovren representing some of the biggest clubs in the world.
Yet there have never been very high expectations off Croatia, partly because of their poor show over the years and their unimpressive history.
This time around things were different, their midfield was touted as one of the best in the tournament and they have proven their credentials.
When it came to the semi-final against England, many people did not give Croatia a chance. The entire talk of ‘glory days’ around England and the fact that Croatia had gone to penalties for both their Round of 16 and quarter-finals matches did not exactly help.
Most pundits believed that fatigue will come into play for Croatia because they had played far more minutes than The Three Lions. However, in the second half of the match on Wednesday, it were Croatia who came out with renewed energy, zeal and tactics and trumped England 2-1.
Croatia’s chief creator Luka Modric did not mince words after their historic victory. Their coach Zlatko Dalic had said a day ago that they were underrated and Modric took a dig that English journalists and pundits made the mistake of underestimating this super motivated side.
“English journalists, pundits from television, they underestimated Croatia tonight and that was a huge mistake. All these words from them we take, we were reading and we were saying ‘ok, today we will see who will be tired’,” Modric said after the match.
Croatia showed their mettle, grit and immense mental strength to down England. Their fighting spirit and the sheer quality in their midfield came to absolute limelight.
Croatia’s first goal was of supremely high quality. While many accuse Ivan Perisic of high boot, his connection with the ball was perfectly time, his boot did not touch the English defender and he found the back of the net. The pass in front of the goal from Sime Vrsaljko was absolute peach and off-the-ball movement from Perisic to get to the ball was gold.
