Sports Blog 11/07/2018: FIFA World Cup Semi-Final Preview – England vs Croatia, Wednesday 11th July 2018

Football’s packed its bags, booked its tickets, but is it actually coming home? We’ll move a bit closer to finding out when England take on Croatia in Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final, at 7pm on ITV.

After the heart-stopping drama of the last-16 battle against Colombia, with that historic penalty shootout win and Jordan Pickford heroics, England’s quarter-final tie against Sweden was comparatively sedate.



Though Pickford did make a few excellent saves, the Scandinavians never really looked like they were going to go through, with a pair of cracking headers from Harry Maguire and Dele Alli on the 30 minute and hour marks sending England to the World Cup last 4 for the first time in 28 years.

As for Croatia, their impressive group stage form – form that saw them win all 3 games and hammer Argentina 3-0 – has completely abandoned them in the knockouts. A drab 1-1 draw against Denmark, with both goals coming after before 5 minutes had passed, went to penalties, with Croatia eventually winning 3-2.

Against the hosts Russia in the quarters they were then forced all the way once again, a 1-1 draw leading to a 2-2 after extra-time stalemate. Zlatko Dalic’s men eventually won their 2nd consecutive shootout 4-3, with Ivan Rakitic nabbing the winning spot-kick.

Now that Belgium are out, England are the top scoring side in the competitive with 11 goals. Harry Kane has more than half of those, and is odds on to win the Golden Boot at 1/25. He also has a healthy Super Mega PGM of 38-44, trailed by Jamie Vardy, who has recovered from a twinge picked up against Colombia, at 16-20 and Marcus Rashford and Danny Welbeck, both at 13-17.

In contrast Mario Mandzukic, who scored the equaliser against Denmark, is at just 14-18, with Andrej Kramaric at 10-14 and Luka Modric, who has 2 goals, at 8-11.

It seems like tempting fate to say it, but (Sir) Gareth Southgate’s side maybe, just maybe, have the edge, with Spreadex offering an England/Croatia Goal Supremacy spread of 0.25-0.45 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.05-2.25.