Croatian players salute their fans after defeating England in the 2018 World Cup semifinal on Wednesday Croatia became the lowest-ranked team ever to reach a World Cup final when they defeated England 2-1 in extra-time in the second semifinal of FIFA World Cup 2018 in Moscow on Wednesday, report agencies.
Croatia are also the smallest nation to reach the final of a World Cup in 68 years (since Uruguay in 1950). Croatia has a population of 4,000,000 people. This has been a sensational journey for the Croats, who had last reached the World Cup semifinals in 1998.
A 20th ranked Croatia will take on 7th-ranked France in the final at Moscow on Sunday, whereas England play group rivals Belgium in the third-place playoff on Saturday.
They had defeated 2014 World Cup runners-up Argentina, Nigeria and Iceland in the group stages before putting up gutsy performances in the knockout stages. Croatia had won both their knockout matches before the semifinals via penalty shootouts. In the round of 16, the Croats had defeated Denmark 3-2 in penalties before overcoming Russia in the quarter-finals 4-3 in a tense penalty shootout.
Croatia showed resilience to come from behind and beat England 2-1 on Wednesday as Mario Mandzukic's extra-time goal sent them into their first World Cup final and sparked celebrations across the Balkan nation.
England had looked on course for their first final since 1966 as they led through Kieran Trippier's fifth-minute free kick and totally dominated the opening half.
But Croatia, in their first semi since 1998, levelled through Ivan Perisic after 68 minutes and then looked the more dangerous side.
It stayed level at 90 minutes, meaning Croatia faced extra time for the third successive game, having got past Denmark and Russia on penalties.
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