England’s Agonising Defeat to Croatia in Moscow

I guess it all came down to the all too familiar for millions of England fans…

Not knocked out on penalties…

But all down to the ifs and buts…

The Three Lions goal to reach our first World Cup final since 1966 came to an emotional end last night in Moscow.

We hoped we could at least get to our first World Cup semi-final since that terrible night in Turin when we were all that much leaner, younger and less wrinkled…

Losing to West Germany at Italia ’90 was a nightmare for all of us.

But last night was supposed to be different…

When Kieran Trippier’s free-kick went in on five minutes, I believed our dream was going to come true…

The Spurs man curled his free-kick with expert precision and reminded me of a David Beckham strike.

I’m sure the pubs across the country erupted into a bedlam frenzy!

Wish I was there…

(But helping the world discover the massive benefits of The Bum Gun is a full-time job!!)

But when Mario Mandzukic turned that ball into our net, close to the end of extra-time I knew we’d blown it.

I knew we had run out of ideas.

I knew we weren’t going to claw an equalizer back before the final whistle.

England’s players distraught at the final whistle

England’s players were obviously distraught as the whistle was blown…

Our dreams shattered like a crystal vase…

Congratulations to Croatia for the expertly way they sussed us out…

They will now be up against France in the final in Moscow on Sunday.

No mistake about it…Croatia are a class side.

Harry Kane might still get the golden boot…

But for me, he hasn’t been his usual clinical self for the last two games…

Which makes me think he’s possibly carrying an injury…

Did England Have a Chance?

Of course, we did!

Harry Kane’s touch did desert him last night on more than one occasion.

Jesse Lingard also wasted a chance he would usually bang in, 90% of the time.

But I think overall we didn’t play as good as we should have.

Not as good as I thought we were going to play!

In fact, we only had ONE shot on target for the whole TWO hours, as far as I’m aware…

So no, Football is NOT Coming Home

It was a Bridge Too Far!

We’ve now been eliminated in four of our last five semi-finals at major tournaments…

Losing the last four in a row!

We had a great start of course with our goal, but we lost momentum in the second half…

And Croatia just got stronger.

Which was a surprise because I thought we were the younger side, the ones that would benefit the longer the game went on…

But Croatia took control as we faded…

We’ve now got Belgium again in the third/fourth place play-off on Saturday…

But it’s a dead rubber for both teams, AGAIN!

And like Turin, I don’t think I’ll be able to stomach watching it…

All too familiar pain, I’m afraid…

Final Thoughts…

I’m not getting any younger, but the pain and hurt will have to go on…

I’ve still got a few more world cups left in me I suppose, and likewise, you do too!

However, I can’t help feeling this is a burning sense of missed opportunity that will take a long time to erase in my heart…

After Germany fell, and then Argentina, Spain, Portugal, then Brazil…

I thought this was our golden chance…

Although England can take a lot from our momentous few weeks in Russia…

We have to learn to finish the job!!

For me, I can’t escape feeling we’ll never get a better chance to reach a World Cup final than the one that we threw away last night in Russia…