With a smaller 13x population and a poorer 50x league, Croatia challenges England | world Cup

It's even easy to explain England's presence in the World Cup semi-finals: the world's richest league attracts the best athletes and coaches, forcing the federation and clubs to invest in the base. foreigners. From the abundance is extracted the talent that constitutes the selection of Gareth Southgate.

Explaining the success of Croatia is a much more difficult task.

A country shaken by recent wars, with its biggest star involved in a corruption case and with only 4 million inhabitants (against 53 million in England) came for the second time in 20 years to a semifinal of Copa.

England and Croatia decide Wednesday at the Lujniki stadium in Moscow to face France in the World Cup final.

According to the Transfermarkt website, the 10 clubs that make up the Croatian Premier League have a market value of 158 million euros. Together, the twenty clubs making up the Premier League are worth 7.6 billion euros. Almost fifty times more. Only Burnely FC has more money than the whole Croatian league.

– If we compare the result we have here with the structure we have in our country, it is something impossible to conceive, said Croatian coach Zlatko Dalic at A press conference on the eve of the match against England.

The last time a Croatian club left the group stage of the Champions League was in 1994. Croatia is only 16th in the UEFA coefficient, which defines the number of places that each country has in continental tournaments. England is third after Spain and Germany. Croatia is behind a number of countries out of the World Cup such as Ukraine, Turkey, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Greece and Austria

The vocation of Croatian football looks like to that of a South American country early. It is no coincidence that 21 of the 23 athletes invited to the World Cup defend clubs from other countries. Among the semi-finalists of the World Cup, it is the selection that spreads the players by more countries: there are Croats in ten leagues. Modric, a 32-year-old former Real Madrid star, moved from Dynamo Zagreb to Tottenham on 22 June and Kovacic to Inter Milan at 19. Ivan Rakitic never played professionally in the country: he grew up in Switzerland and played in Germany before. shine through Seville and Barcelona. Just the opposite happens with the England team, consisting of 23 local players.

– Already a great feit for us [chegar na semifinal]. Some countries like Argentina, Brazil and Germany are already on vacation and we are here. To defeat England would be an exploit. If we had the money from England, who knows what our destiny could be, "commented Dalic.

On the other hand, England is finally reaping the results of two fronts: the power of his league and the investments made by the federation in the basic categories

– We have players who have won titles for their clubs, who have played finals: Jesse [Lingard] and Marcus [Rashford] have already won a European title [a Liga Europa com o Manchester United] even though they are very young.They are prepared for major tests.The coach can help, but it is important that the experience comes from the players – said England coach Gareth Southgate, who coached the U21 team before joining the team.

Despite all the difference between the football structures of each country, England and Croatia presented game styles and numbers similar in this World Cup, which makes Wednesday's duel unpredictable.

• Croatia – 10
• England – 11

• Croatia – 4
• England – 4

Finalizations towards the goal

• Croatia – 19
• England – 19

• Croatia – 55 [19659018] England 54%

• Croatia – 547
• England – 533