Thats it- people conveniently forget that our team is made up of average-poor players.
in 1998/1990/1994 we had a team made up largely of players from the top 4 in England (Liverpool, Arsenal, Villa, Utd) - this team had 1 player who played champions league football this season (McGeady) and our highest ranked premier league players were at the team who came 13th.
The croats had a team made up of players at the top end of league in eastern europe, germany (+ the likes of Corluka from spurs and Jelovic from Everton)
We play a style that has got us many good results, not pretty and very frustrating - BUT if we were to go toe to toe with most other international sides we would be ripped to shreds. We have a very very poor international team and to be honest its a disappoint that we dont seem to have world class players coming through the 21's (maybe your man at chelsea) who can drive the average players to hgiher levels.
we are technically poor and even the likes of hoolihan, Ireland and Reid are a far far cry from the technical ability of most european and eastern teams.
Having said that- the goals conceded yesterday were so so poor and the croats were bricking themselves every set piece we got. We got the luck in Russia, but not yesterday.
Draw v the Spanish, Beat the Italians and hope the spanish and italians beat the croats....and were home and dry to the quarters........whazzah!