I don't know what's up with Croatia but after that flashy thrashing of Argentina they are playing with great difficulties vs mediocre teams and now they have played 240 minutes plus penalties in the knockout stage. I think the Croatians will be tired for the semi-final. England have the perfect chance to play at the final after such a long absence.
Well Russia showed a great performance comparing to its "ordinary" players and they deserved to stay but unfortunately penalty kick has spoken.
England gonna win vs Croatie 70%-30% but the best game will be France vs Belgium, France has a little bit better chance 55%-45% but Belgium could make a good surprise, prefer to see Belgium vs England in the final game.
I will be honest and say I don't know much about the Croatian team, except maybe Luka Modric because he used to play fantastic games for Tottenham Hotspurs but judging from what I've seen, they actually didn't play so badly. Russia was a crazy phenomenon, a lot of old players and very athletic, but we have to be fair and say that this World Cup, a lot of teams really performed, for me it is down to the teams that played a lot together and stayed together for a long time, like Russia.
I don't think you can say they'll be too tired for the semis. They ran a lot but not that much more than other teams. They have 3 days to recover almost, which is okay. Remember this was only a 5 games before this, for a 3 weeks period, so that's not too bad.
I will like to see Belgium in the final, if they win, they really deserve it. They played every game with big hearts and scored every game. This is football we want to see.