Nah, ultimately England did bottle it tonight, but I still think they did themselves proud to be in a position to do so. Never seen them come through a penalty shoot-out and I'm only really old enough to have seen them win one knockout game, never mind breezing through a quarter-final.
Game should have been over at half-time, plenty of chances to extend the lead, Croatia didn't look settled at all, and we even got a good chunk of luck with that VAR decision right on half-time going our way after Maguire and Stones got the wrong side.
Croatia came out the second half looking a more settled side, which unnerved England, and went from strength to strength from there really. England struggled to keep the ball, playing loose passes, running into blind alleys, and on a couple of occasions causing their own problems with horrendous miscommunication at the back. They ended up relying on long balls up for someone to chase or flick on, almost playing for territory at times, while Croatia started to carve out actual chances. Big slice of luck again with the Perisic chance coming off the post and Rebic fluffing the rebound, and were even presented with a slight reprieve when they were chasing the equaliser when Kramaric(?) tried to shoot instead of squaring it to Perisic to make it 3-1.
At a time when they needed to perform for the whole game, there were too many moments where tiredness or uncertainty shone through. Young was completely bossed on his flank, Walker and Stones in particular looked very shaky, Alli was absent once again, Sterling was still lacking any end product, and even Kane, who'd I'd have banked on above anyone else in the side to score, bottled his one big chance.
Any international squad more represented by Spurs players than players from other clubs was going to bottle it eventually