11 July 2018, Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow. Croatia 2–1 England, after extra time.
By Hamish McTavish
A Wednesday in Moscow, a World Cup semi-final, and a country that had spent the fortnight singing the ending. The Sunday Mirror, three days earlier, after Sweden, had gone with SEMI GODS. The Mail on Sunday had Mamma Mia! Maybe it really is coming home. Three Lions was back. The waistcoat was a brand. Gareth Southgate, who had missed the sixth one at Wembley in 96, had a young side nobody had seriously booked for this room, and now that they were in it the song had decided the rest was weather. Harry Kane had the Golden Boot in his sights. Kieran Trippier had the right foot. Jordan Pickford had the gloves. Croatia had Luka Modrić, Ivan Perišić, Mario Mandžukić, and a route that had already gone through Denmark and Russia on extra time and penalties. Four million people. A third extra-time night. England had the song. Croatia had the legs.
Southgate said afterwards he did not think, realistically, any of them had expected to be here. That is the cleanest sentence of the week, and it was filed too late. Once they were here the Sunday papers had already deified them. Football’s coming home is a hymn that does not know how to wait. Večernji list, in the morning, would throw it back in English. Football’s not coming home. 24sata: England had no chance tonight. The Times and the Guardian would share End of the dream. The dream had been printed on Sunday. The night was Wednesday.
The Luzhniki is a bowl that has seen a World Cup final already, in another century, and was being asked to stage the English hymn as if that were a fixture. Kane & Co., the American wires said, would deal with the same disappointment that felled Shearer and Platt, Gazza and Wazza, Beckham and Gerrard. Southgate was still, for now, the waistcoat more than the man who had ended fifty years of hurt. Fifty years of hurt is a phrase they pack and never unpack. Croatia had already unpacked two knockout nights and found extra time at the bottom of both.
They kicked off anyway.
Five minutes. A free-kick, twenty yards, Trippier over the wall and in. One-nil, and the English end in the Luzhniki making the sound it had been practising since Colombia and Sweden. For an hour they were the better side. They might have had a second. Southgate said so. Then the second half started and a different Croatia came out, the one that had already lived two extra times. Modrić took the middle. England faded. Perišić hit a post. Pickford made the save from Mandžukić that kept the dream on life support. Then, on sixty-eight minutes, Perišić finished the equaliser and the song had to learn a new verse. Extra time, which Croatia treat as a place they have already paid for.
England hung on through the first extra period. They had had the lead and had started to protect it, which is how you lose these, hanging on rather than controlling, Southgate’s own words. Eleven minutes from the end of the second extra period Perišić won a header and Mandžukić, who had been prowling the way Müller once prowled, slotted it. One hundred and nine minutes. Two-one. Croatia in a World Cup final for the first time. England in the same dressing room Southgate did not want to dress up as a positive, not yet. At the moment we all feel the pain of defeat. Tonight was a wonderful opportunity and you can’t guarantee they’ll come again. I’m remarkably proud. The reaction of the supporters compared to two years ago. A new benchmark. They came of age. He can have the pride. The night is the Sunday paper, the five-minute lead, and the striker who had already run two knockouts.
Trippier had the free-kick and a night that will be remembered for the start. Perišić had the post, the equaliser, the flick. Mandžukić had the 109th minute. Modrić had the second half. Pickford had the save that made extra time possible. Kane had a tournament and not this finish. Southgate had the waistcoat, the pride, and the same semi-final door he had failed to kick in as a player. The Sunday Mirror had the gods. The Mail on Sunday had the maybe. Večernji list had the only accurate line of the morning. Football’s not coming home. It had never left. It had only been sung.
Rashford, at the end, wiped his face. The English players were inconsolable, which is the correct face when a Sunday paper has already put you in a final. Croatia had the final. England had the third-place game and a benchmark they would spend four years trying to spend. Football will not be coming home, the wires said, and for once the wires and Zagreb were in the same sentence.
They said semi gods. They said maybe it really is coming home. They said a new benchmark. They said they didn’t realistically expect to be here. If you still think it was only extra time, a funeral is only a Tuesday. Extra time is what Croatia do. The song is what England do. Wednesday is when the two meet, and the song loses.
The film is up. FIFA still keep the fifteen minutes: Trippier, Perišić, the save, Mandžukić, the slink away. Do not review it. Watch the Sunday headline run out of legs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGYa0HJNypM
Related reading
- The wally with the brolly — Croatia 3–2 at Wembley, already live on the Tape
- Just a number — Iceland 2–1, Nice 2016, another night the hymn ran out early
If the nights sit right, the shirts and the wall are at /shop.
FAQ
What was the score when Croatia beat England in Moscow 2018?
Croatia 2–1 England after extra time, on 11 July 2018 at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow. Trippier scored for England; Perišić and Mandžukić for Croatia.
Where does the title come from?
Večernji list, 12 July 2018 — Football’s not coming home — throwing the English hymn back after the Sunday papers had already deified a semi-final.
Was it England’s first World Cup semi-final since 1990?
Yes. Southgate’s side reached a World Cup semi for the first time since Turin 1990; Croatia reached a World Cup final for the first time.