World Cup 2018: 3 reasons why England lost to Croatia

Modified Jul 11, 2018 22:33 GMT

Croatia v England - FIFA World Cup 2018 - Semi Final - Luzhniki Stadium — Chin up, lads

#2 England's defence showed inexperience

Credit where it's due, Stones, Walker and Maguire have been formidable at the back. However, England were forced to have the rare experience of having to deal with relentless attacking. Colombia did take the game to England and at times, the backline did look shaky.

When the Croats upped the ante in the second half, England started to look panicky at the back. Suddenly, Harry Maguire was hurrying his clearances, Walker's backpasses were underweighted and Stones was having issues communicating with Pickford.

Though the two goals that went in should be credited to Croatia's ability rather than England's lack of it, the defenders will know that they would have had it easier against the Croats if they'd remained calm and sure-footed during the tough latter half of the game.

Perisic reacted ahead of Trippier and Walker for the first and Mandzukic did it for the second. The defenders would definitely not want to watch those goals again.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Kishan Prasad