For Croatia, Domagoj Vida, who scored Croatia’s second goal in the quarter-final against Russia and netted in the shoot-out, is likely to avoid a ban after his politically-charged celebrations following the game, in which he was filmed shouting ‘Viva Ukraine’. He is expected to be fine, but the Croatian centre-back should be available to face England. Ivan Strinic was an injury doubt before facing England but the left-back played nearly 75 minutes to allay any fitness concerns. Goalkeeper Danijel Subasic played on despite suffering a hamstring injury, while Sime Vrsaljko limped off in extra time – both will face fitness tests before the semi-final.


While for England, Only Jamie Vardy failed to overcome the injury he picked up against Colombia and he would only have been a substitute against Sweden anyway. Ashley Young was fit to play, as were Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Kyle Walker, while Fabian Delph is back with the squad after his wife gave birth – the Manchester City man stepping off the bench against Sweden. England is likely to be unchanged for their semi-final.

Croatia announced themselves as potential World Cup dark horses when they thrashed Argentina 3-0 in the group stages, blowing them away with Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic excelling in midfield. The midfield battle is likely to be key again on Wednesday, with Jordan Henderson tasked with nullifying the threat of Modric and Rakitic in the middle. If England can break up Croatia’s creative heart, they then have Kieran Trippier and Ashley Young to lead the counter-attack.

Croatia’s problem in the knock-out stages has been getting shots on target, and if they do they still have to beat in-form Jordan Pickford in the England goal. England also only created two shots on target against Sweden – Raheem Sterling missing a couple of big opportunities – but they did score them both. Their set-piece threat is obvious, with Harry Maguire scoring his first goal of the tournament in the quarter-final, and it will have given them confidence seeing how poorly Croatia dealt with the Russia free-kick that led to the hosts’ late equalizer in their own last-eight match. If England gets set-piece opportunities, they will be confident of taking advantage of them – the vast majority of their World Cup goals have come from dead-ball situations. John Stones has scored twice, Maguire once and five of Harry Kane’s goals have come from set-pieces too (two headers from corners, three penalties [two of which were won from set pieces into the box]). Croatia is a big threat and England will not have it all their own way – a second consecutive clean sheet, given the goal threat Croatia carry – looks unlikely. But Croatia has not looked as impressive in the knock-out stages as they did in the group stage, while England appears to be still improving game-on-game. Croatia have some injury concerns too, while England should have a full-strength side to choose from. In a game of fine margins, that could make a big difference.

Top three bets:
· England to win at 11/8 with Betway.
· Both teams to score at 23/20 with Betfair
· Harry Kane to score at any time at 7/5 with Paddy Power.

Our score prediction: Croatia 1-2 England.


Source: TopSoccer