Luka Modric admitted a second, draining extra time and penalties victory in less than a week had taken a toll on Croatia but insisted the character they showed would set them fair for their World Cup semi‑final against England in Moscow on Wednesday.

Croatia were 2-1 up against Russia deep in extra time only for the home nation’s right-back Mário Fernandes to head home a late equaliser from a free-kick that sparked wild scenes. Russia went into the shootout with the momentum but it was Croatia who held their nerve to set up the mouthwatering showdown with England. Last Sunday they defeated Denmark on penalties in the last 16.

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“We’ve played two times 120 minutes in six days and, of course, this will leave a mark on you,” Modric said. “But thank God, we’ve shown our character. We had to run a lot. I agree we should have finished the job earlier – we hit the woodwork and had chances. We should have maintained our focus after we took the lead in extra time but, unfortunately, there was a lapse in concentration on the free-kick.

“We expect a very difficult, tight and demanding match against England. Every match at this World Cup is such. We have to enjoy this moment and then we have to prepare for England. We watched their win over Sweden and we saw how good they are from dead‑balls. We’ll have to focus more on defending from set pieces because we conceded today from a set-piece. We’ll have to improve that element of our game.”

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Zlatko Dalic, the Croatia manager, broke down in tears at the full-time whistle. His country has emulated the achievement of their class of 98, who reached the semi‑final of the France World Cup, and the release of emotion was overwhelming.

“It was not a beautiful game,” Dalic said. “It was a fight, a battle. We were lucky, thank God. After [Ivan] Rakitic scored the winning penalty it came bursting out of me. I felt really relieved. We made ourselves happy but we also made everyone back home in Croatia happy. I don’t cry often but now I have a good cause because we are in the semi‑finals of the World Cup.

“Do we have enough power left to beat England? Of course. There is some power left for the English. We don’t want to stop. We’ll try to play our best game, we’re very motivated and it will be a battle again.

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“England breezed past Sweden, they scored twice, they were better. They are a young, alive, attacking team. We will think about them tomorrow. There are no favourites at this World Cup. Every game is 50/50. Many big teams are home; those who are compact and well organised are here in Russia. This is the character of the four teams in the semi-final.”

Modric reflected on how Croatia could not seem to win without going through the extremes of drama. “Maybe it is written in the stars that we have to go through this drama,” he said. “It’s our second time in the semi-finals, after 1998, and it makes us extremely proud and happy. After 20 years, we’ve reached a semi‑final of a World Cup. We have been unlucky at other tournaments but now we’re collecting those debts this year. Hopefully, we’ll go a step further than in 98. We have all the requisites for that. We have a great team and a great coach.”

Stanislav Cherchesov, the Russia head coach, said: “I believe people didn’t only start trusting us, the entire country is in love with us and they know what the national team is worth, we hope that we have turned the situation for the better.

“Vladimir Putin called me earlier in the day and right now, and he congratulated us on a very good game. He said what we showed on the field was great. We are disappointed, I told him. But he said we should have our eyes open and make the next steps.”

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, was quoted by the Interfax news agency saying: “Our team lost in an honest, beautiful game – they died on the field. We are proud of them.”