1/2 Final: England v Croatia Wed @ 7 pm

England are out of the World Cup in heroic, tragic, miserable circumstances. Kieran Trippier's fifth minute free-kick will stay with England fans forever, but only in the same way as Gazza's tears and Chris Waddle's penalty. Croatia should not have been so easily allowed back into the game; experience, both psychological and tactical, ultimately settled the second semi-final.

Twenty-four hours earlier, France and Belgium defied expectations in a pretty tedious last-four fixture, with Didier Deschamps' side edging it courtesy of a Samuel Umtiti header. The France manager's Mourinho-esque football is being tolerated, for now, but having failed to integrate so much young attacking talent he faces a serious backlash should they lose the final.

Manager of the semi-finals – Zlatko Dalic

England dominated the first 45 minutes of the semi-final via long balls down the right for Raheem Sterling to chase. The Croatia centre-backs struggled with his pace while England's supporting midfielders quickly took control of the spaces behind Luka Modric. It should have been all over by half-time.

However, Dalic deserves the plaudits for his side's tactical bravery after the break. Croatia's full-backs pushed higher and were consistently sought out with long diagonal passes. As this feature became more prominent England were pushed back from a 3-5-2 into a 5-3-2, which meant there were big pockets of space in front of the wing-backs.

Croatia's wingers cut inside into these half-gaps, receiving the ball (from the full-backs) in increasing amounts of space. They also peppered the box with crosses to take advantage of the room they had on the flanks, ultimately leading directly to the equaliser.

Prior to kick-off talk had been of Dalic's selection headache in central midfield, and yet playing Inter Milan's Marcelo Brozovic proved to be a masterstroke; he was the architect of many of those raking diagonals to the full-backs.

Tactical error of the semi-finals – Southgate's hesitancy

The mood in England is one of immense pride, and rightly so, but in the cold light of day it is worth considering the tactical flaws of Gareth Southgate during the semi-final defeat to Croatia. It was a day in which Croatia's big-game experience won out, and while many have focused on the calm control of Luka Modric in midfield, the English naivety extends to the benches, too.

Southgate hesitated for far too long in the second half. Croatia's increasing dominance required decisive action from England's inexperienced manager, but instead he failed to make a single substitution until the 74th minute. England were tiring badly, the three central midfielders in particular struggling to cover the width of the pitch once Croatia began switching flanks with those long diagonal balls.