Last night a tenacious Croatia fought back from 1-0 down early in the second semi-final to send England crashing out of the global showpiece with a 2-1 in extra time.

While this effectively killed the “It’s coming home” campaign, the English do still have one more crack at restoring a little bit of pride, when they take on Belgium on Saturday evening in the third and fourth place play-off in Saint Petersburg.

In all fairness, the English don’t really need to restore pride against the Red Devils, because for them simply reaching the last four was an amazing feat in itself.

Gareth Southgate didn’t go into the World Cup all guns blazing like previous coaches, and his main goal was to restore pride and give his young team an opportunity to prepare for the future.

Southgate has taken the defeat on the chin, but to him the biggest disappointment was that they had one foot in the final.

The English were targeting to better the Euro 2016 campaign when they were unceremoniously dumped out of the competition by Iceland, who achieved cult status because of that performance.

Southgate said their rebuilding effort started then and there and he added they were simply beaten by the better team.

Last night was arguably the biggest day in the history of not just Croatian football, but also for the country. At the age of six, his grandfather was shot dead, and his family became refugees in a war zone. He grew up to the sound of grenades exploding and coaches said he was too weak and too shy to play football… then Luka Modric led his country to a first ever World Cup final appearance. Saturday’s 3rd & 4th place play-off in Saint Petersburg kicks off at 16:00, while the final between France and Croatia will be played at the Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday at 17:00.

For the latest updates on the 2018 FIFA World Cup, visit www.ofm.co.za and follow @OFMSport on Twitter.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport