England now fight for third place

England's bid to reach a first World Cup final since 1966 came to an agonising end as they lost in extra-time to Croatia in Moscow on Wednesday.

England will now join Belgium in tomorrow's (Saturday) third place play-off in St Petersburg, report agencies.

The game is held to continue the spectacle of the World Cup and not leave too big of a gap between the second semi-final and the final.

Without a third-fourth play-off, there would be a stretch of three full days in between the semi-finals and final, easily the longest period without a match during a World Cup.

That is why there has been a clash for third place at the World Cup since the second edition of the tournament in 1934, when Germany beat Austria 3-2.

There have been some memorable results for some countries in the game, although many sides do not take it seriously. Croatia and Sweden - in 1998 and 1994 respectively - celebrated winning a bronze medal.

Sweden's victory in the game was greeted by a fighter escort when they landed back in Arlanda and they were then paraded through the streets of Stockholm.

But regularly, the game is used to give reserves game time in a tournament in which they might not have featured regularly. Michel Vorm made a substitute appearance in 2014 so every Holland squad member got some game time.

The games are also often high scoring, and therefore provide a chance for players to cement the Golden Boot.

Salvatore Schillaci (1990), Davor Suker (1998) and Thomas Muller (2010) all struck the goal they needed to capture the individual honour during the third-place play-off. Luiz Felipe Scolari lost his job as Brazil manager as their 2014 World Cup campaign ended with a 3-0 defeat against Holland.

England have taken part in the third-place play-off once - in 1990 - which they lost against Italy.

This year's play-off takes place at the St Petersburg Stadium, which holds 65,000 fans.