RealGM

Croatia vs. England

July 11th, Luzhniki Stadium

Croatia’s been fizzling a bit and kind of gotten through by the skin of their teeth after being the best team in the groups. Seem to be battered and bruised at this point as well. England showed a bit of an uptick today, they gotta be liking their chances to make the final here.

Replace Sterling with Rashford and they'll have a solid chance.

England with a decent chance of going to the finals. I think im in an alternate dimension.
Riding a Croatia belgium final.

Croatia better win this one.

First real challenge for both of these teams in the knockout stage (I can't believe they're looking to expand the tournament). Croatia is better on paper but they've been shaky since the group stage, while England looked pretty good today. Hard to tell who takes it.

Incredible. It'll be a close match but WE can actually do this.

Sure we'll see exactly the same team but would like Dele alli replaced and possibly Rashford for Sterling.

Raps in 4 wrote:First real challenge for both of these teams in the knockout stage .

what are you talking about? They barely escaped Denmark in shootout.... should have lost the way the game was going.

PIckford has to have another brilliant performance against Mandzukic and co.

Croatia gonna win

Croatia impressed me against Argentina but never since. I think England's gonna take this one home. Not that they impressed me yet but..

Rooting for Croatia but the 2nd time, they need to play much better. I thought they were one of the top 3 in group stage play. After that, they haven't played to their billing.

England just has a lot of firepower though.... England may win this though.

The_Brecht wrote:PIckford has to have another brilliant performance against Mandzukic and co.

isnt this the dude who is always limping around when the camera focuses on him? he looks old and nicked up

Pharmcat wrote:

The_Brecht wrote:PIckford has to have another brilliant performance against Mandzukic and co.

isnt this the dude who is always limping around when the camera focuses on him? he looks old and nicked up

I'm not sure if it is the dude, but I'd say Mandzukic is the kind of guy who doesn't look like he belongs on a football pitch, then in the next minute he's scoring a screamer in the UCL finals.

Pharmcat wrote:

The_Brecht wrote:PIckford has to have another brilliant performance against Mandzukic and co.

isnt this the dude who is always limping around when the camera focuses on him? he looks old and nicked up

That's because his workload is insane, he keeps helping on defense and he's always banged up.

I think that this match will end up being one of the most exciting, classic games of this World Cup.

Both teams have gone through extra periods during this tournament. Both teams have gone through penalty shootouts during this tournament. It's been long, it's been tiring. Therefore, I don't think any of them want to go through that again. Which means that we, as fans, will be watching a game with lots of chance creation and fluidity.

Which leads to my prediction below:

The hell with it. England 3 - 2 Croatia.

A set piece. Of course.

TRIPPIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER

Holy cow

The whole country is going mental!