The semifinals provided an interesting crop of teams with a mix of younger teams in France and England and a few older teams in Belgium and Croatia with their "golden generation".
The first semifinals was France vs Belgium. France has looked strong, defeating Argentina and Uruguay, in the knockout stages. Belgium snuck by Japan and surprised Brazil. In the first half, Belgium came out with an interesting composition as they went to a back 4 with Vertonghen playing left back and Chaldi playing right back. They also brought Fellaini and Dembélé into the midfield. It seemed to work early on as Chaldi was able to get involve on the right wing when they had the ball, but he showed glimpses of uncertainty on defence. France slowly figured out the Belgium formation and took control of the game. And the break came early in the second half off a corner which was finished by Umtiti. France got their goal and Belgium now needed to play more forward. Hazard looked dangerous dribbling up the middle, but that left a hole on the left side which Fellaini tried to fill. Belgium had no answer to France's strong midfield led by Pogba and Kante. It may not have been the most interesting match, but France professionally controlled the game and advanced to the World Cup Finals.
The second semifinals was Croatia vs England. Croatia has survived 2 penalty shootouts against Denmark and Russia. England snuck by an injured Columbia and took down a surprising Sweden. England were given an early free kick just outside the box and centrally located. Literally every player was in the wall with Croatia looking to block the free kick, while England trying to obstruct the goalkeeper's view. England's wing backs have been taking all of their set pieces and this was no different as Kieran Trippier stepped up and curled a beautiful free kick with his right foot. It was a perfect start for England with the early goal, but they slowly lost control of the game as Croatia's wide players created space for their midfield to dominate. Croatia's midfield trio of Brozovic, Modric, and Rakitic forced England to run around and continually chase the ball. Croatia got their 1st goal in the 68th minute off a cross from one wide player to another as Perisic deposited the cross into the back of the net. The game went into extra time and everyone was dreading the potential penalty shootout. Croatia pressed on and pushed England deeper and deeper. All England could do was clear it down field and hope for a knock down, but Croatia were too strong at winning the ball back. Another cross from wide caused a missed clearance to go high in the air, which a Croatian player headed it towards goal into the box. Mandzukic was the first to react and calming slotted the ball past Pickford who had no chance as his defense was left sleeping. Croatia had done it, coming back from behind once again and taking the lead. Croatia have played three consecutive extra time matches, but they looked to be the fresher team as the game wore on. A country with the population of just over 4 million was going to the World Cup Finals.
France vs Croatia, who would have guessed this World Cup Finals match up at the beginning of the tournament, but they have shown to be the 2 strongest teams and set to face off on Sunday for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
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