Belgium favored in third-place match over England
- by Leona Burton
- in World Media
- — Jul 12, 2018
After Mario Mandzukic scored in extra-time to give Croatia a 2-1 win against England in the semi-final, he ran to a corner of the pitch at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium to share his joy with his teammates.
He said: "They were the better team, that's all that happened".
Croatia's strength of character will serve them well in the World Cup final against France, their coach and players said after they came from behind for the third straight knockout match to beat England on Wednesday.
Southgate said: "At the moment we all feel the pain of the defeat". But I wonder if we are going to get the game we wanted during the group stage of England's stars against Belgium's stars.
More news: Which Are The Most Downloaded Apps & Games in 2018? Check Full List"The dressing room is a very hard place at the moment".
This time around, we could see the stars play, or we could see some more reserves to get some guys some minutes, and that makes picking here hard. There will in time be positives to take, it's very hard now to put that into context, it's a bit too soon, really, because I think you have to suffer the result a little bit.
Celebrities and supporters in Russian Federation and those at home described Gareth Southgate's young players as heroes for making it to the semi-finals and uniting the country.
At worldwide level, Sterling's qualities often seem to be appreciated more by the opposition than many of England's fans. At the England end, fans stayed singing and congratulating the team for some time after the final whistle. We have three days to prepare ourselves. Now we have a new benchmark, a new level of expectation.
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"We were not creative enough, having just two efforts on target, and in the second half England were overrun in midfield by Modric and Rakitic".
It was the plucky South Americans' second World Cup title, with the first coming on home soil in the inaugural edition in 1930.
The Balkan nation has made light of such differences so far, and will fancy their chances of doing so again on Sunday.
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