Croatia made history after it advanced to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia finals after scoring a 2-1 come from behind win against England early Thursday, Philippine time.
Mario Mandzukic scored a goal in the 109th minute to put Croatia into the finals for the first time.
Croatia’s best finish was third place in 1998 when France then denied them a finals ticket.
Croatia will face France for the gold trophy on July 15, 11 p.m. (Philippine time) at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. England will face Belgium in the Battle for Third place on July 14, 10 p.m.
Croatia is the first lowest ranked team to ever reach the World Cup finals. They are ranked 20th in the world. They’re also the smallest nation with a population of 4,000,000 to reach a World Cup finals since Uruguay in 1950.
It was England who had drawn the first blood with Kieran Trippier scoring an early goal just five minutes into the match.
Ivan Perisic, who scored the equalizer for Croatia in the 68th minute, earned the Man of the Match honor.
England was down to 10 men in extra time with Trippier carried on a stretcher off the pitch and England having used all its substitutes.
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