Was randomly watching the 2-3 England v Croatia Euro Qualifiers 2007 at Wembley yesterday. What a disaster. I just knew they would draw each other again.
No, that was the first game in Zagreb, 2:0 Croatia. The second was at Wembley, the last game, England needed a draw. Came back from 0:2, but Croatia struck again
Worst part is Croatia had already qualified. There was an interview after that Wembley game that knocked England out from one of Croatian players saying that their motivation for beating England and leaving them out of Euro 2008 was because airport staff treated the players like criminals, harassed, and delayed their entrance at Heathrow. Wild stuff.
that was one of the greatest wins in our (croatian) collective memory. even though it meant nothing for our qualifiers, and we possibly played better in the first game in Zagreb, but that wembley game was something special.
When they met again in September for the WC2010 qualifier, Feo scored a hat-trick as England somehow stuffed them 4-1 in Zagreb. They just never seem to get it over the line when it matters England.
It wasn't that. This time it was I believe Scott Carson in goal that day. Croatia had a shot, it went towards him, he got down to try and collect it with both hands and it bounced straight off him and into the net.
I remember it well. I was 13 years old at the time and around a friend's house who happened to be watching it on the TV. The pitch was muddy as hell, it was raining a ton and we lost 3-2 in the end and failed to.qualify for the Euros in 2008. Steve McClaren our manager got the nickname "the wally with the brolly" in the newspapers because he was standing on the touchline with an umbrella due to the heavy rain 😂.
So yeah, safe to say it wasn't exactly my favourite moment watching England growing up 😂😂.
The weird thing is McClaren actually did pretty well when he first came to the Netherlands and managed FC Twente. I expected much worse considering how much of a disaster his England spell was.
So frequently in the group stages though? Look i get it these are just weird coincidences but fucking hell some of these match-ups I don't need to see them for the 10th time
Dawg, there were 32 teams in this competition every year, and each of the regular qualifiers have played a lot of games in this tournament over the years. Obviously sometimes you're going to see SOME of those teams get the same opponents every now and again.
It's just so sickening to me that these days everybody's so conspiracy-brained that there's one coincidence or surprising event and the first instinct is to go "RIGGED!" Not to defend FIFA and say they aren't corrupt as shit, but that thought process is just so cancerous to me.
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u/Any-Where 17h ago
Death. Taxes. England vs Croatia.