But don’t worry - Croatia will not be disqualified from the World Cup, despite what some English fans argue.
If you recall (you do), the Croatia national team overcame England in the World Cup semi-final on Wednesday with a winning goal by Mario Mandžukić (2:1).
Since that evening, complaints from England have been ongoing. Their fans have accused Croatia of everything in the book during the semi-final fixture, including that Croatian players collapsed to the ground worse than Neymar, and how Ante Rebić wasn’t excluded from the match after a double yellow?
It’s quite surprising that so many people shared the same opinion of disqualifying Croatia from the World Cup, which is evidenced by the fact that "World Cup Croatia disqualified" is one of the most searched for terms in Google for users in the United Kingdom.
Here are three reasons why some of England's fans think Croatia should be disqualified, reports Goal.hr on July 13, 2018.
1. Rebić was shown a second yellow card and not a red card.
For starters, it’s incorrect that the Croatian attacker received two yellow cards. In the 48th minute when everyone believed Ante Rebić received his first yellow card, it was actually shown to Mario Mandžukić.
Don’t worry, Cuneyt Cakir did not make the same mistake as English official Graham Poll who gave Josip Šimunić three yellow cards in the match against Australia in 2006.
2. Vida should have been suspended.
The English continue to talk about Vida’s footage, where he is caught saying “Glory to Ukraine!" The Croatian defender has thus received a lot of criticism from foreign media, was whistled by Russians during the semi-final, and the English have, of course, demanded his suspension.
Unfortunately for England, however, FIFA saw the footage and did not punish Vida with a suspension, and instead gave him a warning. In the meantime, Vida repeatedly assured the public that there was no political intent in his message.
3. The refereeing was poor.
Many fans complained of how the Turkish referee officiated the match. The detail that bothers English fans most is Perišić's goal, which they consider should have never been allowed because of his high-kick. They also questioned why Dejan Lovren never received a yellow card, although he had plenty of problems with the quick Raheem Sterling and often had to foul to stop England’s attack.
Of course, these are not all of the arguments. What we have to remember is that the officials have absolute freedom to assess the game as they please. Perišić’s goal was non-controversial, according to the referee, because if he believed it to be, he would have sought help from VAR to correct such a mistake.
Nothing can be done anyway, and on Sunday, we have a feeling that the most searched term in Google will be "Croatia World Champion”. At least we hope...
