Gary Neville claims England ‘targeted’ Croatia star during World Cup win

Former England defender Gary Neville (Picture: Getty)

Gary Neville praised England for hounding Luka Modric out of the game, claiming their intensity was ‘too much’ for the veteran Croatia midfielder.

Modric became just the fourth European player to have participated in five World Cups as he took to the field in Dallas for Croatia’s opening group-stage game against England.

However, it was an evening to forget for the 40-year-old as the Three Lions romped to a 4-2 victory courtesy of a Harry Kane brace as well as second-half goals from Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford.

After struggling for large parts of the encounter, Modric was hauled off and replaced by Mateo Kovacic shortly after Bellingham’s well-taken goal.

And Neville was full of praise of England’s midfielders in how they nullified the potential threat posed by the experienced AC Milan midfielder.

‘What we were worried about at the start of the game was Luka Modric was going to run the game,’ Neville told ITV.

‘That didn’t happen. He’s a great player but he went off after 55 minutes – it was just too much for him.

Luka Modric struggled against England (Picture: Getty)

‘Elliot Anderson, in particular, really targeted him, got around him and didn’t let him dictate the game.

‘In years gone past, England teams have stood off players like that and let them have one hundred passes – these lads didn’t do that today, to be fair to them.’

Roy Keane was equally impressed by England’s approach to Modric, saying: ‘When you’re playing in the middle of the park, your experience can be vital, but if you’re not at it and people are running over you, that experience can cost you.

England were brilliant in the second half (Picture: Getty)

‘He’s 40 years of age and England dominated the midfield and that was a big part of them winning the game. I don’t think England paid Modric any respect in that sense.’

But assessing their overall performance, Keane noted that the nature of England’s first-half performance will keep Thomas Tuchel and his team honest in the days ahead.

‘They’ll be delighted,’ the former Republic of Ireland midfielder added.

‘Scored four goals, the attacking players obviously having an impact, subs coming on and doing well, controlling the game.

‘They looked dangerous at set pieces and I think it’s good, though strange, that they conceded a couple of goals because it keeps them on their toes.

‘I think if they’d won three or four-nil the two lads [Neville and Wright] would have been on the table!’

Neville, meanwhile, was quick to laud Tuchel for his half-time team talk, which brought about a much-improved second-half performance.

‘He’s [Thomas Tuchel] given them an absolute rocket at half-time hasn’t he?’ he said. ‘They’ve come out and for 20 minutes in that second half they were breath-taking.

‘What I liked about it then is they had to sit off and play a bit deeper. He [Tuchel] makes the substitutions and they have a big impact and we go and get that fourth [goal]. It was a really good second half and some of the stuff in the first 10 minutes was fantastic.’

England’s World Cup campaign resumes next Tuesday in Boston against Ghana.

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