A gallant effort by the boys, which hopefully will put them in good stead for four years time......without Southgate.
Weird start to the thing - the pub I was going to was full but a rival pub sent a stretch limo to take a bunch of us to Buzbys bar in Santa Monica. We were piling out when a huge roar from the pub told us we were one up. Wow. After that, the nerves quietly set in. We looked good in some parts, Croatia showed they wanted it too, and the final whistle came when we needed it, but the second half of extra time, we paid a huge Price for a bit of carelessness at the back and the dream died. I had a long walk alone back to the hotel, and my interest in the world cup has evaporated. I hope we beat Belgium to go one better than Italia '90 as it's abut time we laid that to rest, but I really couldn't care less about the final, and probably won't watch it. I'll not point fingers at any of the squad - we got much further tan I expected and I hope we can build on this. But despite the fact I feel as if I was kicked hard in the gut this morning, it has been a great tournment all round, and also for us. Someone on CL said earlier he couldn't listen to 'three lions' without a tear in the eye, and I feel the same way. But they did us proud, and we can hold our heads very high after that.
No excuses, the better team won. I don’t mind the Croats, proud Nationalists & patriots as seen from the scenes in Zagreb last night. As for England, they needed that second goal when on top. Too many players had poor nights, in fact I thought Alli, Rashford and particularly Raheem Sterling were poor all tournament.
Fair play to France - the best team throughout, and with the best individual players. Pavard, Umtiti, Varane, Kante, Griezmann & Mbappe all top class. That’s the standard of player England must aim for...
