I don't get this argument. It was a bit daft when it was thrown around after the Iceland game in 2016, and it's even dafter now, when Croatia, by all accounts, are considered a good footballing nation, and have been for quite some time now.
Had England played Nigeria, Japan, Mexico, Egypt or Russia, they'd have been strong favourites, despite having half the population. Should they come up against China, they'd also be strong favourites, despite having about 3% of the population.
Think you're missing the point a bit here to try and justify your dislike for England. Just say you don't like them. It's fine. You don't need to make up an excuse.
No one thinks England overcame great odds beating Tunisia and Sweden. Not even me.
This thread was about the idea that England's run was easy, and while it was more favourable than it could have been, it was no easier than a number of other draws throughout World Cup history. I'll dig the list of semi-final runs out for you if you like.
This thread also addressed how although England were still favourites, Sweden was considered a tough game for them, but they won it comfortably, how Tunisia were expected to cause problems for both England and Belgium, but both beat them, and how Colombia were considered more than a match for England, with England winning their first ever WC penalty shoot-out to progress ahead of them. It was a good run, and a run that had a number of hurdles that previous England teams would have failed to get over.
England did well to reach the semi-finals. They did come up short, I'd go as far as saying they bottled it after taking the lead, but Croatia are a good team and proved themselves better on the night. On another night England might have taken one or two of those chances and we'd be sat here discussing how they breezed their way into a WC final. It wasn't to be, and football games aren't won in 45 minutes, so the better team went through.
It's almost as if there's a consistent effort to downplay the quality of every team England face
Have you got a link to the prematch discussion before Germany in 2010 because I genuinely can't think why anyone would think that England side were anything other than massive underdogs after stumbling through the group stage, in second place, behind a mediocre USA side. That England World Cup performance was turd from start to finish, with the Lampard ghost-goal over-shadowing what was otherwise 4 spineless performances on the trot.