The late Alexander Litvinenko. [Reuters]

Wary England fans in guarded optimism as the Vatreni look to profit from spoils of poison accusations.

For once, the gods of football contrived to shelve an unnerving meeting between Russia and England.

A Russian victory over Croatia on Saturday would have set up a God-forbid clash between two powers accusing each other of using nerve agents to eliminate double-faced spies.

Instead, the deities of football placed on our menu a less explosive yet a banana-peel encounter between Three Lions and Vatreni (the Blazers) of Croatia, who must be watching the sparring between England and Russia looking to profit from its spoils.

England are on high alert with the National Cyber Security Center having reportedly installed special software in their footballers’ phones and other digital devices, which will be removed upon returning home.

Three Lions were also instructed not to swipe their cards or use online banking services and not to use hotel Wi-Fi while in Russia.

On March 4, Russia double agent Sergey Skripal and her daughter were found unconscious in Salisbury, England and are recovering from what the British say is poisoning from a military grade nerve agent called Novichok.

Back in 2006, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko did not recover from a poisoned cup of tea in a London hotel later reported to be radionuclide polonium-210. July 7, 2018 Croatia's Luka Modric celebrates after the match REUTERS

All that has boiled over to the worst diplomatic stand off since the end of Cold War.

On March 21 this year both sides expelled one another’s diplomatic staff after Britain accused Russia of running an assassination programme to eliminate its enemies.

Thousands of media cabals from England and the US have painted Russia a Mafia State bogged down also by racism orchestrated by the infamous skinheads.

As a result, English fans have avoided Russia, and the few carefree who have made the trip are at their best behaviour here.

They should not have worried and should instead have taken the word of strongman Vladimir Putin as a guarantee. In any case, there is no trace of the notorious skinheads in the 11 cities hosting the Fifa tournament. Only president Putin knows where they are.

But like we say in Kenya ‘Pwagu humpata Pwaguzi’, the English are not dropping their guard - even with a tantalisingly attractive chance of watching first-hand their team reach the Fifa World Cup final for the first time since 1966.

How can you risk, anyway, when even the youthful Prince William of Wales would not be allowed to visit Russia to offer support to Three Lions, just like he has been deterred since 2011 from going to war zones in Afghanistan.

Three Lions are fired up though. It is the third time they are reaching the semi final in the history of the Fifa World Cup – prompting supplicatory cries of ‘Gini wasekao’ (Luo equivalent of Britons’ ‘the trophy is finally coming home’), albeit from the banks of River Thames in London.

Former England striker, now a TV pundit, Alan Shearer said after the 2-0 win over Sweden: “It’s magnificent. Thoroughly deserved. It’s coming home - I’ll end on that!”

As these go on, neutrals’ favourites Croatia will be looking to profit from the spoils of war between the two superpowers.

Captained by Real Madrid’s Luka Modric, the Croats demolished Argentina 3-0 on their way to top Group D with all points.

They were run close by Denmark in Round of 16, but won after a nerve-wracking shootout - a feat they replicated against hosts Russia in quarterfinals.

England have also been professional in disposing off of their opponents and rank second behind Belgium on most goals scored (14-11).