{"id":25018,"date":"2018-07-12T12:56:33","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T11:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/?p=25018"},"modified":"2018-07-12T12:57:22","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T11:57:22","slug":"croatia-vs-england-vatreni-on-fire-after-world-cup-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/croatia-vs-england-vatreni-on-fire-after-world-cup-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"Croatia vs England: Vatreni On Fire After World Cup \u2018miracle\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tears and cries of joy, hugs and chants, firecrackers and flares \u2014 Croatia was on fire late Wednesday after their victory against England set up a first ever appearance in a World Cup final.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCroatia in World Cup finals! It is so beautiful! Miracle of all miracles in Russia!\u201d the state-run HRT television commentator Drago Cosic shouted ecstatically.<\/p>\n<p>Croatia beat England 2-1 in extra-time thanks to a Mario Mandzukic goal in the second period of extra-time to book a date with France in Moscow on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of fans gathered at the country\u2019s largest fan zone in Zagreb\u2019s main square, braving intermittent rain to cheer on the \u201cFiery Ones\u201d (Vatreni) on a giant screen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can be proud and happy \u2026 we don\u2019t want to stop here,\u201d Croatia\u2019s star player Luka Modric told HRT<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 \u2018Like lions \u2013<br \/>\n\u201cOnly great teams can be so courageous and make a comeback afer trailing 1-0 against England,\u201d Mandzukic said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were losing and we returned, we were like lions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Local media praised the players as heroes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPerisic and Mandzukic heroes \u2014 Miraculous Croatia shocks England and makes it to the World Cup final for first time in history!\u201d said the Tportal website.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDalic\u2019s team played another dramatic match and with a new miraculous victory made its fans proud again!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBravo! Everyone should celebrate \u2026 Dalic\u2019s Fiery Ones achieved the biggest success in Croatian football history!,\u201d commented Sportske Novosti paper online<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe brought down the English! Croatia is in World Cup final! Bravo our heroes, bravo! Deep bow!,\u201d said the Vecernji List paper online.<\/p><div data-ad-id=\"32665\" style=\"text-align:center; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px;float:none;\" class=\"afw afw_ad_image afw_ad afwadid-32665  \">\r\n                                                            <div style=\"font-size:10px;text-align:center;color:#cccccc;\">Advertisement<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.accessbankplc.com\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"auto\" max-width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Banner-1.jpg\"><\/a>\r\n                                                                        \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p>\u2013 \u2018Highly emotional evening\u2019 \u2013<br \/>\nThe paper noted that in a \u201cdrama of extra-time Croatia beat England and on Sunday it will decide with France who plays the best football on the planet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, that\u2019s Croatia, don\u2019t have any doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, tens of thousands of fans throughout the country, from the northen port of Rijeka to Dubrovnik in the south, or in the eastern city Osijek, celebrated the victory on the streets and squares, singing popular fans songs and waving Croatia red-white-blue flags.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a highly emotional evening! I\u2019m so proud, a big victory for all of us!\u201d said Fran Kulic, 23, celebrating with friends in downtown Zagreb.<\/p>\n<p>Milena Bacic, a 36-year-old teacher, dressed in red-and-white jersey with Modric\u2019s name was dancing with her friends and said she intended to \u201cparty till dawn\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlay my Croatia, when I see you my heart is on fire!,\u201d a popular song was played all day long on radio stations while waiters, shop workers, TV presenters and nurses donned red-and-white jerseys.<\/p>\n<p>Some stores closed early to enable employees to watch the match, with various concerts, plays and cinema screenings cancelled.<\/p>\n<p>For the past few weeks Modric\u2019s side have been feted as national heroes for their run to the last four in Russia.<\/p>\n<p>They matched the feat of their predecessors in 1998 who reached the semi-finals in the country\u2019s first World Cup as an independent nation.<\/p>\n<p>But on Wednesday night Dalic\u2019s players did even better, securing a historic first World Cup final for the country of about four million people.<\/p>\n<p>(AFP)<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tears and cries of joy, hugs and chants, firecrackers and flares \u2014 Croatia was on fire late Wednesday after their victory against England set up a first ever appearance in a World Cup final. \u201cCroatia in World Cup finals! It is so beautiful! Miracle of all miracles in Russia!\u201d the state-run HRT television commentator Drago &hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":25019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22],"tags":[4184],"coauthors":[2391],"class_list":["post-25018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news","category-sports","tag-croatia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Croatia vs England: Vatreni On Fire After World Cup \u2018miracle\u2019 - National Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tears and cries of joy, hugs and chants, firecrackers and flares \u2014 Croatia was on fire late Wednesday after their victory against England set up a first ever appearance in a World Cup final.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/croatia-vs-england-vatreni-on-fire-after-world-cup-miracle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Croatia vs England: Vatreni On Fire After World Cup \u2018miracle\u2019 - 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