The England World Cup dream flew away as Croatia wins semi-final in overtime | Soccer

It was like looking at a beautiful painting that was tearing in front of your eyes. England's dream of getting to its first World Cup final for over a quarter of a century was over and in those sorry moments after the final whistle, while the losers were wandering aimlessly on the ground, almost like zombies in their trance. It is impossible not to wonder if there will be a life of regret.

These players will eventually remember a tournament that helped to change England's reputation for tournament football and neurosis. All the same, it may take time to overcome the test of giving up an early lead to see everything unfold in the second half and ultimately the extra time. England has broken down and, at this stage of the competition, the disappointment will be enormous when the World Cup opens with so many possibilities.

Croatia will return to the Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday to face France in the final and, on this evidence, they could still have the competitive courage to fulfill their own dreams. The decisive moment came in the 109th minute from an attacker, Mario Mandzukic, who wore an injury and which, in itself, summed up the immense personality of this team. England will take a third against fourth against Belgium the day before and, as in 1990, she desperately would not be there.

At the very least, Gareth Southgate and his players have helped to redefine the way the team of England is perceived around the world. New heroes have emerged, with new respect and new perspectives. See the English fans serenading the team, decorate this huge stadium with their flags of St George and hold the players in such esteem, made it felt like an imaginative thing that the same team was moving away dangerously from a complete mutiny not even a year ago. Moscow 2018 has certainly been far from Malta in 2017, with its mbad debut and protest songs and unpleasant theme. Was it really only 10 months ago?

This England feels different: a band of brothers, so confident and comfortable in their own skin. This England bends him like Kieran Trippier. This England still has a big guy on the back who makes it a duty, in the words of Southgate, to "do everything possible" in both penalties, but the new look of England, in their 3-3-2 now familiar -2 system, does a lot of things well and grows confident in front of our eyes.

Want an example? Just think of the moment when Dele Alli nudged Dejan Lovren and slipped him to the other side to reach him first. Once again, we saw tangible evidence that John Stones is now the central defender that English football still wanted it to be – at least until Mandzukic's strike in overtime. Alli has kept his promise to play better than Sweden. Harry Maguire was exceptional. Jordan Henderson produced another high caliber performance, as he did throughout this tournament, and collectively, England worked hard to try to stifle the influence of Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic

As for Trippier, he will likely become Ramsbottom when he returns as one of the tournament's authentic stars. Trippier chose a good night to score his first goal in England and it was a free kick, even though Croatian goalkeeper Danijel Subasic seemed to be mistaken.

Croatia had six players in their defensive wall after the foul, 20 yards from Modric on Alli. Trippier led on two of the biggest men, Lovren and Mandzucic, and applied just the right mix of loop and dip so that the ball is under the crossbar. Trippier's race to victory took him to the sideline, pursued by his teammates, and if there was any tension in the English side, the goal came early enough to calm their nerves.

They might also think that they should have been more advanced in time if Harry Kane, set up by Jesse Lingard, had been able to beat Subasic closely. The line judge's offside flag was a mistake and, although it is difficult to know sometimes with VAR, there must be a reasonable chance that the goal would have been given if Subasic had not launched a boot to divert Kane's tracking effort.

Croatia's players left the field at halftime, arguing that Maguire should have been penalized for a penalty grappling. It was out of the question that Zlatko Dalic's team would come out without a form of resistance and it was inevitable that she would start hiring more men in the second half

. the first concerted pressure spell. Kyle Walker blocked a shot with the part of his body where no man wants to be hit. But England was starting to appear vulnerable for the first time and Southgate had desperately hoped that Lingard and Raheem Sterling could have taken one of the opportunities that arose earlier in the match.

Halfway through the second half, right back Sime Vrsaljko sent a deep cross from the right. For once, he escaped Maguire and Ivan Perisic showed a great commitment to get ahead of Trippier and Walker. Perisic had to improvise, twisting his body in the air and pushing the left boot, sideways, to pbad the ball in front of Jordan Pickford with a clever volley.

After that, it must have been surprising that Southgate saw the way the game turned in favor of Croatia. Shortly after, Perisic hit the post with a low diagonal shot and Ante Rebic should have done better with the rebound. It was not an attack, but it was not far off and Croatia had to feel that she had enough in the danger zones to complete the recovery before the end of regulation time. Still, Stones saw a goalie unhinged the line in the extra time before the killer moment when he lost Mandzucic and the striker hit the decisive blow.