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MOSCOW (AP) Here is a preview of what will happen at the World Cup, which ends in its last two matches: Saturday's match in St. Petersburg between Belgium and England, and the Finale the next day Moscow between France and Croatia:
ELATION AND EXHAUSTION
The Croatians are heading to their first World Cup final, if they can stand for a few more days. Croatia's 2-1 win against England in overtime on Wednesday night in Croatia made Croatia the first team to extend their playing time in three straight games. Time factor of injury and successive victories in shootout against Denmark and Russia, Croatia has just played the equivalent of 4 matches in 11 days.
They will have just under four days to rest against France, finished all their games in regulation and have an extra day to prepare, after beating Belgium on Tuesday. The coach of Croatia, Zlatko Dalic, already refuses to use the weariness of his team as an excuse, but as was the case against England, the condition of the players will not fail to be a central issue in the biggest match ever played by Croatia.
As if the Croats did not have enough challenges, now they have to worry about playing again in front of a crowd openly hostile in the Luzhniki stadium of 81 000 places. Or at least one of them does it. The insistence of Dalic after the match against England that "the whole stadium chanted" Croatia, Croatia "was belied by the fact that a huge group of Russians in the building mocked Domagoj Vida almost every time that he touched the ball. [19659002] Vida and a team official, both playing for the Ukrainian club Dynamo Kiev, appeared in a pro-Ukrainian video posted shortly after the Croatia has eliminated Russia from the tournament, FIFA has left Vida with a warning, but the Russian fans did not forgive knowing that the booing is now a thing in Moscow, he can expect a new reception difficult Sunday [19659002] MISFIT MATCH, REVISITED
England and Belgium have already played each other once in this tournament, and in one match both coaches were filled with reserve players as they were already qualified for the elimination phase The coach of England, Gareth Southgate, conceded that he wanted to lose him in order to avoid a more difficult course in the semifinals, and his strategy worked until that Croatian Mario Mandzukic beats goalkeeper Jordan Pickford in the 109th minute on Wednesday night. Now, England and Belgium find themselves in the match where nobody wants to play. That's exactly what Harry Kane, captain of Southgate and England, called immediately after losing to Croatia, using terms that the losers of the World Cup semifinals have also thrown out. . "It's not the match we wanted to be in. I'm sure Belgium did not want to be in the game," Kane said. "But it's a game that's part of the World Cup … so we'll do our best and give the best of ourselves."
Conventional wisdom is that Belgium and Europe England send the second string again, play a minimum of defense and try to avoid But the match for third place may reserve some surprises: the record for the fastest goal in the history of the World Cup still belongs to the Turkish Hakan Sukur, who buried an 11 seconds in the third. -place against South Korea in 2002.
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