England beats Croatia in great football battle: 4-2

England – Croatia was already one of the most attractive posters of the World Cup group stage. Croatia is the losing finalist of 2018 and came third in 2022; England is the losing finalist of the European Championship two years ago. Matches between such top teams can be boring if the two have a tactical hold on each other and do not let go.

But this is not a World Cup of boring matches (okay, maybe except for Qatar – Switzerland). And at a tournament in which not a single match has disappointed (who would have expected anything different from Qatar – Switzerland?), England – Croatia stood out: 4-2.

After just ten minutes, England had the ideal opportunity to take the lead, after Luka Modric defended too slowly in his own penalty area and brought down former PSV player Noni Madueke. Harry Kane’s first attempt was stopped, but because Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic left the line too early, the England captain got a second chance: 1-0.

What followed was a match at the highest intensity, in which every mistake was punished. Croatia twice came back from behind, partly thanks to an assist from the tireless PSV player Ivan Perisic: he received the ball through the air from about thirty meters from the goal by midfielder Mario Pasalic and headed it back to the incoming striker Petar Musa. He took a controlled swing with the inside of his right foot: 2-2. England’s lead to 4-2 after the break was justified, but with Croatia’s deadly effectiveness it would have been the other way around.

Mixture of football cultures

The match in Dallas was also an intense mix of football cultures, with the United States receiving perhaps their most European match yet. Already a day before the match, groups of Croats and English people walk through the center of the city doing what they do best: drinking beer and singing. Many fans of both countries wear Texas cowboy hats. American passers-by look surprised in the streets that are usually dominated by office workers during the day and homeless people at night.

‘Make America Great Britain Againreads an English flag at a bar the morning before the match downtown is hung up. But around the stadium, that European football culture first mixes with the American one; in the Walmart parking lot, fans drink cheap beer (or cheaper than at the stadium). And inside it mixes with the Mexican; Just like at many other matches in the US, the Dallas Stadium is teeming with Mexicans, sometimes in shirts of one of the playing teams, at least as often in the Mexico shirt.

For example, before the match there is a group of Mexicans in England shirts on the track behind the stands lucho libremasks on, the face coverings wrestlers wear, joking fans. When a corpulent Englishman with a burnt head and pale stomach lays down on his hands, dozens of fans cheer them on. And during the drinks break in the second half the pub classic Mr. Brightside by The Killers is played, the Americans also join the English singing soon enough.

It is also the English chant that echoes through the stadium after ninety minutes. The match is barely over a few seconds before the stadium DJ It’s coming home inset, the football hit about the endless yearning of the English for a second world title. It is premature, but not inconceivable after the convincing victory over another outsider for the final victory.

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