England and Croatia, two nations waiting years to put right the bitter memories of World Cup semi-final defeats, face each other in Moscow with the chance to finally go one step further.
England’s last appearance at this stage was in 1990 when they lost in a penalty shootout to West Germany in Turin.
Eight years later, in their first World Cup as an independent nation, Croatia lost to hosts and eventual winners France.
Neither team came to Russia being heralded as favorites but they have produced performances throughout the competition which have shown they were underestimated by the pundits.
Croatia’s 3-0 win over Argentina in the group stage was a clear signal that the team led by midfield maestro Luka Modric was a real threat with their clever passing and movement.
In their quarter-final clash with Russia, the Croats showed a different side, being willing to slug it out with the Russians for 120 minutes before keeping their cool and winning the shootout in such a partisan atmosphere.
England, which made an early impression with a 6-1 crushing of Panama in the group stage, then overcame their shootout hoodoo in beating Colombia in the last-16 and looked composed and mature in the 2-0 quarter-final victory over Sweden.
Croatia may be a small country, but when they took on England, their team’s supporters promised to be loud.
Fans from the Adriatic nation of 4.2 million people scrambled to get to Moscow.
“You can imagine the hectic situation back home. Everybody wants to be at the stadium. It’s something very big for us,” said Croatia fan Neman, arriving at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport before the match.
“If you compare the size of the country I doubt there will be more Croatians [than English fans]. But nevertheless, we will be very loud,” he added.
Ten charter planes carrying over 1,500 fans took off from the capital Zagreb for Moscow on Tuesday, Croatian online media TPortal said.
