England manager Gareth Southgate praised his side’s resilience after they scored two goals in the final 12 minutes to beat World Cup semi-final conquerors Croatia 2-1 at Wembley yesterday and book their place in the last four of the Nations League.

England were facing the prospect of relegation to the second-tier of European football when Andrej Kramaric gave Croatia the lead against the run of play near the hour mark.

But in a mirror image of their World Cup defeat in Moscow in July, substitute Jesse Lingard equalised before England captain Harry Kane poked home the winner with just five minutes left to give Southgate’s young team the perfect end to an encouraging year.

“I’m very proud first and foremost,” Southgate told Sky Sports. “I thought we dictated a lot of the game and had good chances in the first half.

“Then we let quite a soft goal in and it’s a real test of resilience and patience. We rode our luck with their counter-attacks with one cleared off the line.

“I’m proud of how we’ve done all year. I’ve not heard Wembley like that for a long time.”

England also impressed with the way they went at their opponents in front of the passionate Wembley crowd, creating a host of opportunities against a team that came close to winning the World Cup in Russia.

“It felt as if we could open them up and make good chances,” Southgate explained. “The players are starting to believe in the system. We have some players so comfortable building from the back.

“The depth in the squad since the summer has grown with the young players. Whoever comes in during this competition have all delivered.

“We knew if we had to accelerate, we had game-changers on the bench. In the last five minutes we were mature enough to see things through.”

Kane’s late winner, a fine finish from Ben Chilwell’s teasing low free-kick with five minutes left, was his first since winning the Golden Boot in the summer’s World Cup.

“We were disappointed not to take our chances but against big sides you have to stay calm,” said the Tottenham forward.

“We said after the World Cup we want to keep progressing and get better — and the way to do that is by beating top teams. We finished the year strong. We’ll enjoy this one.”

Meanwhile, Portugal became the first team to qualify for the Nations League semi-finals when they held Italy 0-0 on Saturday, the second time in a year that the hosts have been knocked out of a competition following a goalless draw at the San Siro.

Italy, with defender Giorgio Chiellini making his 100th appearance, suffocated Portugal in the first hour with their pressing and created numerous openings with their intricate passing moves.

But they ran out of steam in the last half hour and the European champions held out fairly comfortably.

Portugal have seven points from three games in the three-team group, two ahead of Italy who have finished their campaign. Poland, who visit Portugal for the group’s final game on Tuesday, have one point and have already been relegated.

They are also in line to host the semifinals and finals in June as Italy and Poland were the only other two countries to express an interest in staging the tournament. The decision still has to be ratified by Uefa on 3 December.

Last November, Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years after being held by Sweden at the same stadium.

Italy had an early chance when Lorenzo Insigne’s long-range shot was parried by Rui Patricio and Ciro Immobile blasted the rebound over the bar.

In what was a hugely promising display by Roberto Mancini’s side, Alessandro Florenzi drove a low shot narrowly wide before Marco Verratti threaded a ball through to Immobile and this time Patricio saved the shot with his leg.

Another neat move ended with Jose Fonte blocking Federico Chiesa’s shot early in the second half.

Portugal, who have not picked Cristiano Ronaldo since the World Cup by mutual agreement, were more threatening as the game wore on.

Substitute Joao Mario shot over on the turn after Joao Cancelo worked an opening on the right and Gianluigi Donnarumma made a difficult save from William Carvalho’s low shot.

Lorenzo Pellegrini’s header was comfortably saved by Patricio as Italy had a final fling in stoppage time. — AFP

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