ENGLAND 2, CROATIA 1
IN the space of seven dramatic minutes, England went from being relegated from group four of the UEFA Nations League to winning it and qualifying for the semi-finals.
It looked as though England would endure further misery against Croatia who this summer beat them in the semi finals of the World Cup.
England, who had dominated the game, fell behind after 57 minutes through a superb solo goal from Andrej Kramaric, the former Leicester City striker.
At that point England were being relegated with Croatia set to overhaul Spain and win the group.
When substitute Jesse Lingard equalised in the 78th minute, England were still on course to be relegated due to an inferior away goals record to their Wembley opponents.
In a dramatic game of numerous twists and turns, Harry Kane’s 85th minute winner propelled England to top spot and relegated Croatia to the second tier of European football.
And despite criticisms of the UEFA Nations League, it has certainly added a competitive element to what had ordinarily been meaningless friendlies.
That was reinforced by the atmosphere as Wembley was bouncing at the final whistle. And with Three Lions blasting from the sound system and fans flag waving it was reminiscent of those dizzy days when hosts England reached the semi-finals of Euro 1996.
England manager Gareth Southgate was asked to reflect on a year that had seen his team reach the semi finals of the World Cup and reach the semi-finals of the Nations League after winning in Spain and beating Croatia.
He said: “I am proud of all the players and all the staff. We have grown together and improved with every step.
“Today was another big occasion and big experience. There were a lot of expectations, but we coped well.
“We played well in the first half and should have been ahead. We had to show resilience to stay in the game after they scored on the counter.
“It may be new England, but we scored with from a long throw and free kick so nothing changes.”
Southgate described this as a “significant” step in the team’s development adding the emergence of players in recent months has provided options on the bench.
And looking ahead, Southgate continued: “We are not perfect, but we are improving and there is a hunger to do it.
“We had quality, resilience, strength together as a group. The next stage is is to win in these big games, something we have done in the last two months.
“We have shown more consistency, but have to keep improving. We have beaten three of the top 10 teams in the world in the last few months.
“The World Cup is far bigger, but we have to look at the next challenge (Nations League) and how we can make it rewarding.
“It is a great opportunity to test ourselves against top opposition and what has also been exciting is the way we have connected with the supporters.
“There is a feeling around the team which is very powerful and we want to build on it and next year could be exciting.
“We have more targets ahead, (Euro) qualifiers in March and we can’t take them for granted.”
Croatian coach Zlatko Dalic had no complaints about the result saying England deserved their victory.
England made eight changes to the side that started Thursday’s friendly against Croatia.
Jordan Pickford, Ben Chilwell and Fabian Delph were the sole survivors as it was all-change.
Kane returned as captain while there were recalls for Kyle Walker, Eric Dier, Joe Gomez, John Stones, Ross Barkley, Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford.
And there was a heavy Mancunian influence with three City players in the starting line up with two from United with two further Reds, Jesse Lingard and Luke Shaw on the bench.
Croatia were captained by world player of the year Luca Modric, the former Tottenham midfielder, with their side also including the talented Ivan Perisic and the nucleus of the side that beat England in the semis to reach this summer’s World Cup final.
England had an early let-off when Pickford slipped making a clearance. The ball fell to Ante Rebic who blazed over an unguarded goal.
But Southgate’s side had two chances in quick succession in the 11th minute to take the lead.
Sterling was put clean through by Kane’s slide-rule pass, but keeper Lovre Kalinic made a super block.
And from the resulting corner, Stones headed toward goal and Kane spooned a shot over the bar from inside the six-yard box.
England had another great chance to break the deadlock when Sterling was put through by Delph. Keeper Kalinic came out of his box to head clear to Kane whose goalbound shot was blocked and his follow-up effort superbly kept out by the Croatian keeper.
Kalinic was also called into action diving low to his left to turn away a drive from Chilwell as England remained well on top.
England had another chance late in the half when Barkley volleyed into the side netting at the far post from a Chilwell cross as they remained in almost total control.
The second half continued where the first left off and Rashford’s brilliant run and pass released Sterling, but Kalinic saved well again.
The fear was England would be punished for missed chances, and so it proved as Croatia stole ahead in the 57th minute with their first clear-cut chance of the match, a wonderful solo effort from Kramaric.
The striker was surrounded when he received a cross from the right, but he twisted and turned several times to create an opening for himself before firing his past Pickford with the aid of a deflection off Dier.
Southgate made his first change mid-half when Barkley made way for Dele Alli.
And that was soon followed by two more as Delph and Rashford were replaced by Lingard and Jadon Sancho.
Lingard had only been on the pitch five minutes when he equalised for England.
Croatia failed to clear Gomez’s long throw, Kane prodded the ball past keeper Kalinic and Lingard tapped in from a couple of yards.
Lingard not long after came to England’s rescue clearing a Domagoj Vida header off the goalline.
It was a stroke of good fortunes as three minutes later England stole ahead.
Chilwell’s excellent free kick was not cleared and Kane, sliding in, managed to divert the ball low past Kalinic for his 20th international goal.