Croatia v England, 11 July 2018

Kick-off: 9.00pm local (7.00pm BST) After extra time - 1-1 at 90 minutes Croatia v England was Match 62 of the FIFA World Cup 2018 Referee: Cüneyt Cakir (Turkey) Assistant Referee 1: Bahattin Duran (Turkey) Assistant Referee 2: Tarik Ongun (Turkey) Fourth Official: Björn Kuipers (Netherlands) Reserve AR: Sander van Roekel (Netherlands) VAR: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands) This was Croatia's second World Cup semi-final; also in their first World Cup participation in 1998 when they lost 2-1 against France in Paris. Croatia became the 13th nation to reach a World Cup final and the tenth from Europe. Only Uruguay (approx two million) in 1930 now had a lower population than Croatia (around 4.2million) when reaching a World Cup final. Since the introduction of the FIFA World Ranking in 1992, Croatia became the lowest ranked nation to reach a World Cup final (20th). Croatia became only the second of 19 nations who were behind at half-time in a World Cup semi-final who recovered to progress to the final; also Argentina versus Italy in 1990. This was England's third World Cup semi-final; also a 2-1 win against Portugal at Wembley in 1966 and lost on penalties after a 1-1 draw with Germany at Italia '90. England had now been eliminated in four of their five semi-finals at major tournaments and lost each of the last four (also Euro 1968 versus Yugoslavia, World Cup 1990 versus West Germany and Euro 1996 versus Germany). Kieran Trippier joined Bobby Charlton and Gary Lineker as the goalscorers for England in World Cup semi-finals. With Kieran Trippier's goal, 12 goals had now been scored at this World Cup finals by Tottenham Hotspur's players; more than any other club (Barcelona, 11). The quickest goal in a World Cup semi-final remained as 35 seconds by Arne Nyberg for Sweden against Hungary in 1938. Ivan Perišić had now scored four goals at the World Cup finals. Only Davor Šuker (six) had scored more for Croatia. Croatia had now scored in each of their last ten games at the World Cup finals since 2006. Croatia became the fourth nation to go to extra time in three games at the same World Cup finals; also Belgium in 1986, England in 1990 and Argentina in 2014. Following their quarter-final win against Sweden, England failed in their attempt to beat two European nations at the same World Cup finals for the first time since 1982 (versus Czechoslovakia and France).