England and Russia deserve applause for the tournament – Sports Mail.Ru

"Disappointment". That's the only word I can describe the defeat of the England team. Our team had a great opportunity finally to reach the final of the World Cup. After the first goal of Trippier, I thought we could really play in the decisive match.

But in the second half, everything changed, Croatia played much harder and England missed that unfortunate goal of Perišić. However, I do not agree with those who saw in this episode a fault on Walker or a dangerous match – a clean goal, and England itself gave the victory to Croatia [19659002AtfirsttherivalwasplayingwithusthanCroatiaSeparatelyIwillmentionModricwithwhomIworkedforseveralyearsinTottenhamAfantasticfootballplayerandthemaincompetitorfortheprizeofthebestplayeroftheWorldCupBeforethegameagainstEnglandIwbadurethatLukashouldtakethe"GoldenBall"andIamevenmoreconvinced:heperfectlycontrolledthegameinthesecondhalfandintheprolongationsevenifallcouldnotseeit

Croatia has drawn up an effective plan for the match, and I am not at all sure that France will win the final. Well, England should be happy with the result. We showed a decent game at the world championships, although we had to be realistic: the Southgate team did not meet the best teams, with the exception of the Belgium. Panama, Tunisia, Sweden … The light playoffs have made England one of the top four teams in the world. Yes, we can still win bronze medals, but, in my opinion, the matches for third place are a waste of time. The players have already lost their motivation, everyone wants to go home on vacation. I do not think third place in the world championship is very different from the fourth.

In any case, the team from England deserves applause, as Russia. You remember, I told you at the beginning of the tournament: "You have a good team!" Yes, it was a surprise to me that she arrived in the quarterfinals, but she did so rightly. Maybe at the 2020 European Championships, England and Russia will fight together for high places. But our team for this is to find Modrica in the country. While England will not have a central midfielder of this clbad, football will not return home.

Harry REDNAPP
Specially for "SE."