Saturday 21st June
I’m writing this article sat, post shower, in the room of our hotel by Vienna Airport. I still cannot comprehend how we’ve lost a game we dominated and scored in the final minute of. It does not make sense. It must be wrong, it is surely us in the semi final against Germany. Isn’t it?
Of course it’s not. It’s Turkey. An ugly long ball goal with the final kick of the game, the inevitable penalty shoot out loss, and they jubilantly march through the quarter-finals leaving us on the international scrapheap for another 2 years. How typical. How typically Croatian, how typically English?
I am put in mind of the Euro 96 semi-final between England and Germany. A game where England utterly dominated proceedings yet still went out via the penalty shoot out. I remember Gazza missing a tap in by about an inch, how did he not score? And didn’t someone score only to have the goal disallowed? A game that was in the bag, but for a margin of inches, was lost. A final that had been all but sewn up, slipped inexplicably away. A pain in my stomach, relentless in it’s manner, yet completely unbelievable and unexpected.
How could a team do so much, but still fall short at the final hurdle? Why do some teams always seem to have the luck, whilst others receive pats on the back for spectacular failures? Germany for instance, why, why, why did they get every 50/50 decision against Portugal, whilst Croatia manfully struggle to despatch a mediocre Turkish side and eventually lose to a horrifically lucky goal. Why do England always flatter to deceive, and more often than not seem to lose to the ‘freak goal’ or ‘freak result’ or goal that never was. Perhaps it’s in the stars. Some teams are just not supposed to cut it. Unfortunately for me, Croatia and England are two of them.
It all starts so positively. The hopes and expectations of a nation are raised by an excellent performance. The draw opens up before you, and you already see yourself in the final. Sound familiar? Tonight, the hopes and dreams of an expectant nation were lost, not by skill or virtue of a worthy opponent, but by the width of a bar, the second hand on a referee’s watch, and that almighty of football variants – luck. Honorary Croatians throughout the UK will have sat back at the end of the match, looked at the TV and thought – this feels familiar. They may even have said a choice phrase or two from our Croatian Language school.
Ultimately, the outcome is the same. We are out. A less deserving, more fortunate team is still in. The only difference I can see in this particular instance, though it gives me no comfort, is that our vanquishers on this occasion, have absolutely no chance of winning the tournament. Perhaps there’s still a slight difference between England and Croatia, however paper thin.
Andrija Tadic reports for UK Football Finder from the leading Croatian football website become a croatia fan.
