Dejan Lovren replied in the only way he could in the circumstances. Asked whether he was looking forward to playing against Harry Kane in Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final, the Croatia defender said: “He is one of the best strikers in the world but I like to challenge these strikers and to show to everyone that I am one of the best defenders.”

Rewind to 22 October at Wembley, and there are 31 minutes on the clock. Lovren glances to the technical area and sees his number being held up. Kane has already got away from Lovren twice, running in behind to score Tottenham’s first goal and leaving the defender in his wake to set up a second. Lovren looked lost and disoriented. “Ambling about like a man recently winched up off the anaesthetist’s table,” Barney Ronay wrote .

Tireless Ivan Rakitic happy to be on the spot for Croatia against England Read more

It was uncomfortable to watch. Lovren had strayed into that territory where a player becomes a danger to his own team and Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, had to act. His words after the match felt as damning as the decision to sub Lovren so early. “If I am involved in this situation on the pitch, then Harry cannot get the ball,” the Liverpool manager said. “It wouldn’t happen if I was on the pitch – but I am in the middle of the technical area in trainers.”

Lovren is a better footballer than he showed that day and although his time at Anfield has been far from straightforward, by the end of the season it seemed as though the balance had tipped to the point that the good outweighed the bad. Even his biggest critics at Anfield would acknowledge he enjoyed an impressive Champions League campaign, forming a fine centre-back partnership with Virgil van Dijk.

Either way Lovren has learned to live with the flak. There is a story he tells about his childhood and how, when he was 12 years old, he wrote under the table at his apartment in Croatia: “One day I will be one of the best defenders in the world.”

People ridiculed him at school, said he “could not play like a defender”, lacked pace and was one-footed. Lovren used that as for motivation. There is no shortage of self-belief burning within him.

But even at the age of 29 doubts persist – in Croatia as well as on Merseyside – about Lovren’s consistency and that nagging feeling there could be a blunder round the corner. It feels strange that a player who has spent the past eight years in the top flight in France and England, being transferred for the best part of £35m while moving from Dinamo Zagreb to Southampton to Liverpool, has represented his country 44 times. He has rarely been a mandatory pick for Croatia and if Vedran Corluka, the former Spurs defender, had not been plagued by injuries Lovren might well have begun this World Cup on the bench.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Harry Kane scores Tottenham’s first goal in their 4-0 win over Liverpool at Wembley last October. Lovren was substituted after half an hour after failing to deal with the Spurs striker. Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

But Lovren has started every game with the exception of the final group match against Iceland – when Croatia were already through to the last 16 – and only Luka Modric has played more minutes than him here. Not only that but Lovren has acquitted himself well. He has made more clearances and blocks than any other Croatia player, and only Ivan Rakitic and Modric have racked up more passes.

Yet, steady as Lovren has looked, it would be understandable in the context of his battles with Kane last season – the striker also scored at Anfield in the corresponding fixture – if there were some concerns at the back of the defender’s mind.

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Publicly at least Lovren insisted he was relishing that prospect and gave the impression that he was more concerned about England’s threat from set pieces. “Look at the players – the smallest is about 6ft 3in,” he said, smiling. “England are one of the favourites to win the World Cup and you have to respect that. But we enjoy to play against big teams, as we showed against Argentina, and have nothing to lose.”

Vukojevic sent home by Croatia over Ukraine comments

Croatia have sent Ognjen Vukojevic home from their World Cup delegation after the former international appeared to make pro-Ukraine comments in a video.

The video, posted after Croatia beat hosts Russia in the quarter-finals on Saturday, shows defender Domagoj Vida alongside Vukojevic. Vida shouts “glory to Ukraine” before Vukojevic, who has travelled with the side as an observer, adds “this win is for Dynamo [Kyiv] and Ukraine … go Croatia.”

The video angered many in Russia, which has tense relations with Ukraine and annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. The Croatian football federation and Vida have apologised for the video. Both the centre-back and Vukojevic previously played for Dynamo Kyiv, and Vukojevic is now a scout there.

Fifa rules prohibit players from making political gestures at the World Cup and the governing body gave Vida a formal warning on Sunday but did not impose a match sanction.

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Vukojevic said he intended the video as a personal greeting to Ukrainian friends, not as a political statement. “However, I do understand that my statements can be differently interpreted,” he said. “Because of this, I am sorry”