England and Croatia resume 21st Century rivalry as winner takes all at Wembley

It is England’s major international rivalry of the 21st Century and happily, a testing one because Croatia, quite simply, are very, very good.

Forget Germany. Forget Argentina. Forget Scotland. When the two teams meet at Wembley on Sunday to decide their Uefa Nations League group, it will be their eighth consecutive competitive match.

The last of the two friendlies there have been was 15 years ago. Since then, there have been two tournament ‘finals’ games, four qualifiers in the Euros and the World Cup and last month’s goalless draw behind closed doors in the new Uefa competition.

Five of them threw up significant moments in the history of the England national side.

There was the World Cup semi-final defeat in Moscow in July which - when all was said and done and Gareth Southgate’s tactics had been harshly dissected - actually happened because Luka Modric and Co. reminded us after half-time that they were one of the best outfits in Russia and deservedly reached the final.

Before that, there was the 3-2 win in the pouring London rain by the Croatians in 2007 which infamously cost Steve McLaren his job as manager as England failed to qualify for Euro 2008.

In the 4-1 win in Zagreb in a World Cup qualifier in September 2008, Theo Walcott scored a memorable hat-trick.

In the return at home a year later, England won 5-1 – the nation’s equal second-best win since the stadium re-opened in 2007 if you discount thrashings of the minnows of Andorra and San Marino.

All the way back in June, 2004 as well, there was the euphoric moment when the teenaged Wayne Rooney scored twice in a 4-2 win at the finals of Euro 2004 in Lisbon – and for a brief moment, the nation began to imagine that something big might be about to happen.

It didn’t. Rooney got injured and England departed in the quarter-finals after losing on penalties on Portugal. Until the unexpected events in Russia last summer, it never again quite felt that England had such a big chance in one of the big two competitions.

Now this – a do-or die shoot-out on a November afternoon, the circumstances of which confirm that the Nations League has been that rare thing, a good idea surfacing from within one of football’s two international ruling bodies.

Southgate’s team may win the group - which also includes Spain - and progress next year to another mini-summer of sun, lager and rare adventure in a competitive setting.

Or they may be relegated into the Nations League’s second tier, which would be a bitter blow after last summer’s events and the subsequent, hugely uplifting win in Seville last month.

This is more like it. The sterility of the usual kind of international friendly wasn’t much of an issue against the USA on Thursday because it had Rooney’s ceremonial last stand as an added feature.

A Sunday afternoon date against familiar opponents could, though, have been another tepid kick-about, with club managers watching on anxiously after making it plain they do not want any of their boys coming back injured.

This match, with something meaningful at stake in front of a sell-out crowd, will actually deliver some benefit to those watchful clubs.

The group of young players assembled by Southgate – the latest first-time goal-scorers against the USA were Trent Alexander-Arnold and Callum Wilson – are putting together a useful catalogue of experience of serious international competition which can only help them advance as club players, too.

This is against the back-drop of tournament wins in the U20 and U17 World Cups in recent times, which has put to bed the worry that young English players lack tournament experience.

It will certainly aid their development, too, to once again face the combined talent and ingenuity of Modric, Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitic, Ivan Perisic of Inter and Tin Vedvaj, the Bayer Leverkusen defender who scored twice in the 3-2 defeat of the Spanish in Zagreb on Thursday.

If England add a win against such an impressive side, it will add to the lustre created by last month’s win in Spain and lay down further evidence that what has happened so encouragingly this year is no fluke and has proper, growing roots.

Qualification for Euro 2020 – which will conclude at Wembley – will also be on offer to the tournament winners, although that could be a double-edged sword.

This England team is progressing. If they are not required to play in a qualifying group, it will mean more friendlies, not fewer. Catch 22? Or even Catch 2020?

Well, let’s hope first that we can win something – anything – beforehand. One World Cup and the 1997 Le Tournoi in France – which was designated a friendly competition - do not amount to much in the way of success. Any flash of silverware will be welcome.