A whopping 40 days ago, this happened …
… and while Croatia will be desperate to summon some sort of face-saving, reputation-salvaging, self-respect-restoring response tonight, they’d do well to consider that: (a) it’s not very likely, if their defenders again randomly skitter around like they did in Rijeka; (b) it’d almost certainly make not a jot of difference to their borderline-non-existent hopes of making the quarters†, and; (c) hey, they’ve always got the Euro 2008 qualifiers and the 2018 World Cup semi to keep them warm at night. So in that three-part sense, this is a bit of a non-event, though tell that to Harry Kane, who will break the all-time appearance record for the Three Lions‡. Kick-off at Wembley is at 7.45pm GMT. It, almost exclusively for England, is on!
†: After the first four matches in Group A3, the table looks like this …
1. Spain P4 GD+7 Pts 12 2. England P4 GD+11 Pts 9 3. Croatia P4 GD-10 Pts 3 4. Czechia P4 GD-8 Pts 0
… which means Spain are definitely through. England are as well, if we’re all being honest with each other. They can only be pipped by Croatia if they lose both of their final two matches in this November break (tonight’s game, then away on Sunday night to Spain) while Croatia win both of theirs (this one, then their hosting of Czechia) and even then, because things would go to the head-to-head, Croatia would have to beat England tonight by a minimum of seven goals.
‡: The all-time England men’s appearance list …
125: Peter Shilton, Harry Kane 120: Wayne Rooney 115: David Beckham 114: Steven Gerrard 108: Bobby Moore 107: Ashley Cole 106: Bobby Charlton, Frank Lampard 105: Billy Wright 96: Kyle Walker 94: John Stones 92: Jordan Pickford 91: Jordan Henderson 90: Bryan Robson
