'Underestimated' Croatia stars twist the knife after beating England | OneFootball

A semi-final win against England means Croatia will play Sunday’s World Cup final.

It will be the nation’s first ever World Cup final and their stars didn’t hesitate to share how the English approach to the match spurred them on.

“English journalists, pundits from television, they underestimated Croatia tonight and that was a huge mistake,” Luka Modrić told ITV after the win.

“All these words from them we take, we were reading and we were saying ‘OK, today we will see who will be tired’.”

Croatia had played extra-time in each of the last two rounds, prevailing against both Denmark and Russia on penalties.

Modrić wasn’t alone in his scathing criticism, with Ivan Rakitić also piling in on England’s pre-game attitude.

“Each to their own… but they thought they were already in the final,” said the Barcelona midfielder. “They can keep doing what they always do.”

And then came the verdict from defender Šime Vrsjalko, who definitely didn’t hold back.

“The all-round perception was that this is a new-look England who have changed their ways of punting long balls upfield but when we pressed them it turned out that they haven’t.”