Ivan13
Not posting anymore
The offside would almost certainly have been overturned on VAR to be fair. I do agree that while England was suffocating Croatia in the early going and looked like the much better side then, it didn't yield a ton of clear chances.
As far as chances other than Kane's go, I remember Lingard pulling a great shooting opportunity wide and a header saved off the line. That's not all that much, obviously, but it bears pointing out that Croatia produced almost nothing of note in the 1st half. I think that Croatia's inability to mount much of an offensive threat was the real surprise for everyone, and why England seemed to have the upper hand playing with a lead. At that point in time England were pressing like the best of Klopp sides, and Croatia looked a bit slow in comparison. That fed into the narratives going into the game of a tired Croatia running out of steam.
Given their shortcomings in the skill department, this was always going to be England's best chance at success in this tournament. Score some way - probably a set piece - then defend the opposition to a standstill for the rest of the match. They didn't get that done and, of course, and it's relatively easy to see why in hindsight. In order to bring a lead home safely, you must control midfield. Once they stopped pressing all over - probably just don't have the horses to do that to be honest - England's midfield was absolutely hopeless vs Croatia's midfield.
I'm not sure how that works, I know that earlier in the tournament the expert on Croatian TV said something that once that flag goes up it is over because it might be argued that it influenced play, even though it clearly didn't here. If that first shot went in it would probably be overturned, the 2nd I have no idea.