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REPINO, Russia — Two nations who have been waiting years to put right the bitter memories of World Cup semifinal defeats will face each other on Wednesday in Moscow with the chance to finally go one step further.

England’s last appearance at this stage was in 1990 when it lost in a penalty shootout to West Germany in Turin, while eight years later, in its first World Cup as an independent nation, Croatia lost to the host and eventual winners France.

While many outsiders view that unexpected Croatian run to the last four as a great success, inside the country many share the view of the team’s then manager Miroslav Blazevic that it was a missed opportunity.

England too left Italy 28 years ago feeling that the team featuring Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne could have gone all the way.

But neither side are in a mood for nostalgia or using the past as motivation.

While Croatian players, who have been asked constantly about the generation of 1998 and never fail to express their admiration for the likes of Zvonimir Boban and Davor Suker, those comparisons are a weight they feel is unneeded.

“We are not putting more pressure on ourselves with what happened in 1998,” said midfielder Ivan Rakitic.

“What they did was impressive but we want to keep writing our own history and enjoy what we are doing which is very positive,” he added.

England’s loss in 1990 was turned into a documentary film and has become a fabled part of the country’s “52 years of pain” since their 1966 World Cup triumph.

But on Monday, defender Ashley Young was quick to dismiss it’s significance.

“We are concentrating on what’s going on now. Not what’s happened in the past. We’re looking forward to the future,” said Young.

Underestimated

Neither team came to Russia being heralded as favourites, but they have produced performances throughout the competition which have shown they were underestimated by the pundits.

Croatia’s 3-0 win over Argentina in the group stage was a clear signal that the team led by midfield maestro Luka Modric was a real threat with its clever passing and movement.

In the quarter-final clash with Russia, the Croats showed a different side, being willing to slug it out with the Russians for 120 minutes before keeping their cool and winning the shootout in such a partisan atmosphere.

England, which made an early impression with a 6-1 crushing of Panama in the group stage, then overcame its shootout hoodoo in beating Colombia in the last 16 and looked composed and mature in the 2-0 quarter-final victory over Sweden.

England should come into the game fresher and it also has the edge in previous meetings, winning four of the seven encounters, including a 5-1 victory in the most recent match — a World Cup qualifier in 2009.

ST PETERSBURG — Roberto Martinez’s swashbuckling Belgium side head into Tuesday’s semifinal with familiar foes France as the World Cup’s leading scorers, but their old rivals has evolved as the tournament has progressed and will also be full of confidence.

Belgium has scored 14 goals in five matches and was hugely impressive in its 2-1 quarter-final victory over Brazil, with Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne combining to devastating effect to oust the five-times world champions.

In contrast, France sleep-walked through the group stages, eking out wins over Australia and Peru before a stultifying 0-0 draw with Denmark.

Their early struggles had ‘Les Bleus’ being written off in some quarters, but all that changed when they faced Argentina in the last 16 in what must be a leading contender for the most exciting match of the tournament.

Didier Deschamps tweaked his formation, effectively freeing up Kylian Mbappe on the right to run at the Argentine defence, and what followed was a wonderful display of attacking football that France won 4-3.

The victory boosted France’s morale, and they followed it up with a workman-like 2-0 win over Uruguay that was impressive because of how well they managed to control the game against tricky opponents.

Belgium faced a heart-stopping moment of uncertainty in the first knockout round against Japan, when Martinez’s decision to rest players in its final group match against England almost backfired spectacularly.

Belgium’s returning first team players made a sluggish start against the Samurai Blue and suddenly found themselves trailing by two goals with time ebbing away.

Stung into action, Martinez sent on Marouane Fellaini and Nacer Chadli in the 65th minute, and both were heavily involved as Belgium pulled off a late comeback, with Chadli securing victory with practically the last kick of the game.

Against Brazil in the quarters, Martinez showed tactical adventure, as he pushed target man Lukaku to the wing to allow De Bruyne to operate as a ‘false nine’. The strategy worked, and De Bruyne scored his first goal in Russia.

Tuesday’s clash in St Petersburg has all the makings of a classic, with fans and viewers likely to be treated to the sight of two wonderfully attacking teams going toe-to-toe.

“It’s a super exciting game with great players on both sides,” France defender Benjamin Pavard said. “It’s going to be a man’s match and we will have to step up.”

France, world champions in 1998, is slight favourites to go through according to most bookmakers, but Belgium tends to step up its game against these particular European rivals, if history is anything to go by.

Of the 73 meetings between the teams, Belgium have won 30 and France 24, with 19 draws between them.

SILVERSTONE, England — Sebastian Vettel won the British Grand Prix for Ferrari on Sunday to deny Lewis Hamilton a fifth successive home victory, and move eight points clear at the top of the Formula One standings.

In a race with two late safety car periods, reigning champion Hamilton went from pole position to the rear of the field before finishing second for Mercedes in a superb fightback.

The Briton appeared drained by the effort, and deeply unimpressed by a first-lap collision with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen that sent him spinning to the back.

Raikkonen ended up a close third, after incurring a ten-second penalty.

The win was Vettel’s fourth of the season, 51st of his career, and once-dominant champions Mercedes’ first defeat at Silverstone since 2012 before the V6 turbo hybrid era started.

“You’re a lion,” the elated team told him over the radio at the chequered flag as they celebrated Ferrari’s first win in Britain since 2011.

“I was a bit concerned going into the race but I was fine, probably a bit of adrenaline,” said the German, who had struggled with a neck strain on Saturday.

“The neck held up and that was a race I enjoyed a lot and I think the people enjoyed it a lot.”

Hamilton was on a charge from the first lap, back up to seventh after nine laps but still 26 seconds behind his fellow four-times world champion.

The appearance of the safety car on the 33rd of 52 laps, after Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson crashed at Abbey, was greeted with a huge cheer from the 140,500 crowd who had already cheered Hamilton’s every overtake.

Vettel and Raikkonen pitted but Mercedes kept their drivers out, assuring Hamilton that he was “the fastest guy by miles” with everything to play for on tyres that would last the distance.

Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas led and might have won but for a second safety car, after Renault’s Carlos Sainz and Haas’s Romain Grosjean collided, that kept the front four nose to tail and only fractions apart.

Greatest race

Vettel passed Bottas at Brooklands five laps from the end, with the Finn’s tyres fading, and Hamilton was also through a lap later and the chase was on to the finish with the German winning by 2.2 seconds.

“This is the greatest race of the year and the greatest crowd, I am sorry I could not bring it home for you today,” Hamilton told the crowd. “I will not give up, believe me, I will not give up.

“My team did an amazing job this weekend, we got so much support. Interesting tactics I would say from their side [Ferrari], but we’ll do what we can to fight them.”

Raikkonen held his hand up and admitted he had made a mistake.

“At the third corner I locked the wheel so I ended up hitting Lewis on the rear corner. He spun, my bad,” said the 2007 world champion.

“It was my mistake. I deserved it,” he added of the penalty. “I took the ten seconds and kept fighting.”

Bottas was fourth with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo fifth and Nico Hulkenberg sixth for Renault. Frenchman Esteban Ocon finished seventh for Force India, who are now level on points with McLaren and ahead on podiums.

Fernando Alonso was eighth for McLaren ahead of Kevin Magnussen in the Haas and Pierre Gasly taking the final point for Toro Rosso.

Monaco’s Charles Leclerc had also been on course to score for Sauber but was ordered to stop after an unsafe release from the pits while in eighth place.

Dutch 20-year-old Max Verstappen, winner in Austria last weekend, retired with a brake problem while running in fifth place.

Croatia ended Russia's unlikely World Cup dream when it won 4-3 on penalties to eliminate the gallant host after a dramatic quarter-final ended 2-2 after extra time on Saturday.

Ivan Rakitic stroked home the winning penalty to send Croatia into a semifinal against England after a night of unremitting tension in Sochi, ending the remarkable campaign of a team ranked 70th in the world.

Fyodor Smolov saw Russia's first penalty saved by Danijel Subasic and, although Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev saved a Mateo Kovacic kick, the hosts' fate was sealed when Mario Fernandes fired completely wide from their third attempt.

In the previous 120 minutes, Denis Cheryshev rifled Russia in front with a long-range thunderbolt, his fourth goal of the tournament, in the 31st minute before Andrej Kramaric headed Croatia level six minutes before halftime.

Croatia then went ahead with a soft header in the eleventh minute of extra time but Brazilian-born Fernandes headed the hosts level with five minutes of play remaining to send the game to penalties.

Russia had already surpassed expectations by reaching the last eight, ousting Spain on the way.

After a lively opening, the game dropped off, with sessions of head tennis in midfield, but it was Russia's more rustic approach which paid off first as they went ahead out of the blue.

Cheryshev collected the ball near the halfway line, exchanged passes with Artem Dzyuba and curled a 25-metre shot past Subasic.

But slack defending allowed Croatia to level eight minutes later. Mario Mandzukic ran unchallenged into the penalty area and chipped a low ball back into the centre where unmarked Kramaric scored with a glancing header.

Croatia was agonisingly close to scoring on the hour when Russia's defence failed to clear the ball and Ivan Perisic's shot hit the inside of the post but rebounded harmlessly across the face of the goal.

Croatia appeared to have the tie in the bag after Vida's extra-time goal until Fernandes rose to head in a free kick and send both teams to their second penalty shootout of the tournament.

28 year wait over

Headers from Harry Maguire and Dele Alli fired an impressive England into the World Cup semifinals for the first time in 28 years after it eased its way to a 2-0 victory over a dogged but disappointing Sweden on Saturday.

Maguire opened the scoring in the 30th minute at the Samara Arena and Alli doubled the lead after the break as Gareth Southgate's young squad continued to defy dampened pre-tournament expectations with another confident display.

For once it was not Harry Kane who claimed the plaudits as the tournament's top scorer was kept quiet, but England found another hero at the other end of the pitch as Jordan Pickford produced three superb saves to shut out the workmanlike Swedes.

Croatia, lower ranked than Gareth Southgate's side, is all that stands between England and a first World Cup final since it lifted the trophy in 1966.

Sweden had reached the quarter-finals by making life hard for supposedly superior opponents and it was easy to see why after a dour opening when England looked incapable of stringing passes together against their hardworking opponents.

It was predictable in many ways, therefore, that the deadlock was broken from a set piece.

England had laboured without reward before Ashley Young lined up a corner on the left and his curled effort was met by Maguire charging forward with conviction and barging Emil Forsberg out of his way to power a header down into the net.

That was England's eighth set-piece goal at this World Cup, but, while they are seemingly lethal from dead balls, apart from Kane they are not blessed with too many other sharp shooters.

The killer blow arrived in the 59th minute as Jesse Lingard's teasing cross into the box was met by Alli unmarked at the far post to head powerfully past Olsen.

England had not kept a clean sheet in their four previous matches and had Pickford to thank for ensuring it did not concede this time.

SAMARA, Russia — Europe and South America will do battle again for football supremacy in the World Cup quarter-finals, but with many of the usual combatants having already exited, there is a fresh feel to a line-up that promises a new or long-absent finalist. 

While Africa, Asia and North America will not be represented, dashing any hope of a revolutionary breakthrough in the eventual destination of the trophy, at least one of this year’s finalists will not have reached the title decider for half a century, if at all.

With perennial challengers Germany, Spain and Argentina all having exited a tournament that has thrown up a never-ending series of surprises, the draw has a distinctly unbalanced feel in terms of the talent weighing on either side. 

In one half, England, which played its one final when it won the title in 1966, and Sweden, which lost to Brazil on home soil in the 1958 final, will meet in Samara on Saturday with a last-four clash against Croatia or Russia awaiting the winner.

Neither the host, whose previous best was a single semifinal appearance as the Soviet Union in 1966 or Croatia, who also reached the last four in 1998, were expected to challenge but have significantly outshone many supposed superiors. 

On the other side of the draw, five-times winners Brazil take on Belgium’s so called “Golden Generation”, and 1998 champions France faces Uruguay, which was crowned twice in the tournament’s early history. 

It is here that the habitual battle between football’s two dominant continents, who have produced all previous World Cup winners, will take place. 

While it is the fourth time in the last seven tournaments that no team outside of Europe or South America is in the last eight, even this quadrennial conflict will spurn its usual template. 

Overturning long-held preconceptions about football’s two main land masses, this year’s quarter-finals pitch thrilling and adventurous European teams against pragmatic, stubborn and defensively-minded South American opponents.

Brazil, usually the game’s great entertainers, and Uruguay boast the meanest defences at the World Cup having both conceded once in their four games.

Their opponents, Belgium and France, are more focussed on creating havoc at the other end.

Uruguay kept Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo at bay in their 2-1 last-16 win, just as France banged in four against Argentina at the same stage. They play in Nizhny Novgorod on Friday.

Miserly Brazil

The spotlight on Brazil is still stubbornly trained on talisman Neymar, who has been defined by his histrionics as much as his performances in Russia, yet, the true heroes of their current side are seemingly stationed at the other end of the pitch. 

Brazil’s defensive record under coach Tite has been remarkable, with only six goals conceded in 25 matches, and they have been just as miserly in Russia. 

Belgium, however, is the tournament’s highest scorers with 12 in four straight victories including the superb comeback from two goals down to beat Japan in the last 16. 

In Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne, Belgium, who last reached the semis in 1986, have two of the game’s most devastating creators.

Yet, as they walk out to face world football’s mightiest superpower in Kazan on Friday, they might wish they were playing relative minnows Sweden instead.

That could have been their fate had they lost their last group game to England, who have been handsomely rewarded for finishing runners-up with — on paper — what appears to be a far-easier route to the final. 

Having overcome Colombia on penalties in the last 16, England manager Gareth Southgate will probably feel his decision to field a second-string side against Belgium has been vindicated. 

If England get past workhorses Sweden, whose brand of football is not the easiest on the eye, the will face either Russia or Croatia, which plays each other in Sochi on Saturday. 

None of the teams in this side of the draw, including England, would have begun the tournament with realistic expectations of reaching the final. 

Yet, what were once distant dreams are now edging closer to reality. 

MOSCOW — Brazil winger Neymar is a world class footballer who does not need to exaggerate when he is fouled because it does not earn him any sympathy with the fans, former Germany captain and World Cup winner Lothar Matthaeus said on Wednesday.

Neymar, who has scored twice so far to help Brazil into the World Cup quarter-finals in Russia where it will face Belgium on Friday, has been sharply criticised for a string of exaggerated reactions when clashing with opponents.

“Neymar does not need it. He is an excellent player, one of the five best players in the world,” the 57-year-old Matthaeus, who won the 1990 world Cup with West Germany, told reporters. “Why does he need the acting?

“It does not bring him sympathy. [1986 World Cup winner] Diego Maradona was not acting, [Argentina captain] Lionel Messi is not acting. We need players like Neymar but not the acting.”

Matthaeus said it was up to referees to put a stop to it, adding that during his playing days Colombia’s Carlos Valderrama was one such culprit but now there were just too many.

“I remember Colombia [against England on Tuesday], how they were acting,” he said. England beat Colombia 4-3 on penalties in a bad-tempered game that was almost constantly interrupted, with referee Mark Geiger booking six Colombians and two English players.

“In the 1990s they had one Carlos Valderrama, now Colombia have six. I don’t like this provocation and acting and I cannot understand why a player likes to cheat. With video assistant referees [VAR] this should not be possible.”

Matthaeus also blamed Geiger for not punishing players for it.

“You have to cut this. He [Geiger] forgot to cut it at the right time. He let them [Colombians] do it.”

Geiger awarded England a penalty in the 57th minute but Harry Kane needed to wait several minutes before taking it as Colombian players had surrounded the referee, disputing his decision.

“With the penalty we missed three minutes of football because of the discussions. We don’t need this acting. We want to see football games, people always come to watch a football game. If they want acting they should go somewhere else,” the German said.

Matthaeus, however, had only praise for the England side and its brand of quick football.

“England played very well yesterday. These are high level players and the English national team profits from coaches in the Premier League working with these young players. They also learned how to shoot penalties,” he added.

“This young generation, they are believing in themselves. They do not play kick and rush. They like to play out of the defence. This is the style of the English clubs.”