Three reasons why England could not score against Croatia
England and Croatia played out a dull draw behind closed doors in Rijeka, in a match where people thought they could have come up better. The first half was even and England were trying to get their combination right with a not so creative midfield partnership of Eric Dier and Jordan Henderson. The second half did see a lot of drama and exciting football from the English side as the Croats played second fiddle.
The talking point coming out of yesterday’s match was that Football is nothing without the fans. The match took 45 minutes to get going and players coming to terms with the silent atmosphere. Gareth Southgate can take some positive out of the game as England coped with the condition better than Croatia. Borussia Dortmund's Jadon Sancho became the first player born in the 2000s to play for England. Ben Chilwell also made his English debut and was impressive. Ross Barkley, meanwhile had not a great outing as he looked rusty and nervous
Raheem Sterling has not been able to produce the kind of form he usually shows for Manchester City and hasn’t scored for the national team since 2015. Even Harry Kane is going through a rough patch with a scoreless run since last six matches.
England had played with a three men defense in the world cup and resorted back to the 4-man defense which shows their flexibility and the talent they have in their squad.
We take a look at 3 reasons why England didn’t find a way to score:
1. The Woodwork-
England hit the woodwork twice and could have really won the match had their finishing was more accurate.
Eric Dier was the culprit in the first half when his near post flick hit the crossbar of Livakovic’s goal. Harry Kane did it again with a header. Both times the provider was Jordan Henderson. Kane was quiet for most of the match with the Croat defenders marking him well. But the striker of his ability should have taken the one chance he got and put the result to bed.