England will wear all white against Croatia for World Cup semi-final
England will wear all white in their World Cup semi-final against Croatia, it has been confirmed.
Despite being the designated ‘home’ team at the Luzhniki Stadium, Croatia will don their black-and-blue away strip because their red-and-white home kit clashes with both their opponents’ uniforms.
For the same reason, England will not wear their traditional blue shorts.
Gareth Southgate’s side wore their all-red change strip for their last-16 and quarter-final matches against Colombia and Sweden, as well as for their Group G opener against Tunisia, after being designated the away team on each occasion.
They wore their full home kit against Panama and Belgium and would be able to do the same in either the World Cup final or third-place play-off, regardless of whether they play the Belgians again or France.
Croatia have been forced to wear their own away kit in every match in Russia apart from their Group D win over Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Sir Geoff Hurst says Gareth Southgate reminds him of Sir Alf Ramsey and feels England's current team will emulate the 1966 side by lifting the trophy.
"In terms of similarities, the leadership at the top is vital," Hurst said.
"We had a terrific manager in Alf Ramsey, who had a great system and he selected a team that could be successful and had good characters.
"We've seen the leadership with Gareth Southgate being very impressive, which has engendered a good team spirit. That seems to be quite evident, with what he says, how the team are celebrating with each other - we're not seeing any bad stories.
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"The difference for me is we had four world-class players at the time, whereas I don't think you could say that at the moment.
"If we get through this and do well at the next tournament, we'll be talking about them as world class."