Dark horses see light at the end of the tunnel as world cup glory looms

Luka Modric and Harry Kane will be the two key men for their respective teams in their bid to reach the final

With a win on Wednesday, Croatia will make national history by reaching their first ever final after matching the result of the 1998 squad by reaching the semi-finals of the Fifa World Cup.

Croatia's road to the knockout stages has been one of the stories of the tournament as they topped their group ahead of Lionel Messi's Argentina, even routing the Argentines 3-0, in a group which could easily gone wrong as Iceland and Nigeria posed a credible threat.

Croatia managed to overcome through a combination of good teamwork, better tactics and as well as their best players stepping up when needed.

Of course, it helps when your two best players ply their trade with the two best teams in the world. Barcelona's Ivan Rakitić and Real Madrid's Luka Modrić have done a great job in keeping things ticking and will be pivotal to proceedings going up against a relatively untested England.

Ivan Perisić, Mario Mandzukić and Andre Kramarić will also give the Three Lions a few more things to consider.

However, despite all that England will fancy their chances as Croatia have failed to win a knockout game in regular time. In their last two matches Croatia have had to overcome both Denmark and Russia via the lottery of penalties. While this displays a strong mentality, playing back-to-back games into extra time and penalties can take its toll.

Even though England are a work in progress, fatigue setting in for Croatia could swing the match their way. 

Ready to take advantage of this will be the much maligned Raheem Sterling who on his day can be a handful and his pace serves as a diversion which frees up space for England's other attack options.

Harry Kane has six goals so far in this world cup and a couple against Croatia will be on his checklist to further etch his name in English football lore in leading England to the final.

Whatsmore, England go into Wednesday knowing a win will get them one step closer to ending their 52 year wait for the World Cup and finally bringing football home.

France, Belgium with a glimpse at glory as Word Cup final beckons

Paul Pogba and Kevin De Bruyne will be the two key men in the middle as France and Belgium look to advance to the final

Coming into the tournament as two of the favourites to lift the world cup in Russia, Belgium and France go into their semi-final as the only two big teams to deliver on that status. After an amazing run of stories unfolded the other big guns including defending champions Germany, former champions Spain, Brazil and Argentina all failed to make the grade.

Belgium were brilliant in their execution as they eliminated Brazil from the world cup and played on the Selecão's weakness down the middle of the park in the absence of their anchor Casemiro. This showed that the Belgians not only have the necessary talent to perform on the big occasions, but they also have the tactical nouse to see through and adhere to a gameplan.

Romelu Lukaku has been key in that regard with the bullish centre forward often acting as the first point of attack as Belgium's battering ram drawing attention to himself. This has allowed their dangermen like Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne more room to outmanoeuvre opposition defences. 

Against France they look likely to be favourites as the experience and the talent is on their side. Belgium also have the ability to do a bit of everything from playing fine intricate passing football down to forcing matters if need be.

France will be well aware of this and will have confidence in themselves too as they have grown in confidence looking more assured after they mostly scraped through in their group stage matches.

More importantly, their best players have started stepping up with Kylian Mbappe looking lively in the knockout matches, Paul Pogba looking like his old self spraying an array of passes and having an impact on the matches.

Best of all, the return of Blaise Matuidi will come as welcome news for France as he along with Pogba and N'Golo Kante will prove key if Les Bleus are to have hopes of toppling a Belgium team stacked with an array of talent down the middle of the park.

So now all that's left to do is to see who'll be able to apply their game plan and adapt to their circumstances to put them just one step away from the biggest trophy in world sport.

Neymar may never be as good as hoped to be

Neymar proved to be ineffective as Belgium stole the show in knocking Brazil out of the world cup

When it comes to football no other nation has had a more illustrious history than Brazil. Having won a record five World Cup titles, the Brazilians have also been blessed with some of the world's best talent having won more world footballer of the year awards over the past two decades. 

Romario, Ronaldo, Kaka, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo are just some of the names that come to mind when discussing the innate talent of Brazil. However, none had scaled the heights that Brazil legend and all time great Pele had reached and the hunt for his successor continued.

That is until in the build of the 2009 a 17-year-old Neymar drew the attentions of the Brazilian footballing fraternity performing feats reminiscent of the footballing icon.

Even with the rising powers of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi the wonder kid looked destined to overhaul them as well as by the time he'd left Brazil in 2013 for Spain he'd won the Copa do Brazil, and Copa Libertedores as well as an international title with Brazil lifting the 2013 Fifa Confed Cup in dominant fashion against world champions Spain.

The world looked to be at Neymar's feet as a season later he'd form part of one the most dangerous triumvirates, MSN, in world football alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. 

In his time as part of MSN, Neymar would win 7 trophies including a league and European treble. Neymar finished third behind Messi and Ronaldo for the Ballon D'Or after producing the best form of his career.

By all indications the Brazilian wonder looked to be getting closer to the level of the two greats. But in light of recent events you could argue his career has taken a few steps backwards as he proved ineffective for most of their quarterfinal loss to Belgium in Russia.

Throughout the tournament Neymar tended to stifle Brazil going forward as he held on to the ball for far too long and heading into the new season he definitely has some growing to do as a player.

With the Messi and Ronaldo era entering its twilight years Neymar would have been the next in line to assume the mantle of world's best player, but following a good showing from Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne things might not be all that simple.

Along with that in a few years he'll also have to deal with the emerging talent of Kylian Mbappe as the teenage wonder walks the same path he did, however, he looks to have a good head on his shoulders opposed to Neymar who might have made a mistake by leaving Barcelona for bigger pay days in Paris.

PSG may offer big money, but there's no growth to be had for Neymar at a team with the best players and almost unlimited resources. Essentially Ligue 1 serves nothing more than a feeder system for Europe's big sides and his chase for the Ballon D'Or would have likely succeeded if he stayed at Barcelona learning alongside Messi and Suarez.

Either out of ego, of being in Messi's shadow, or bad advice to chase money Neymar's career could threaten to devolve down the same path as Robinho who chose the new money at Manchester City over glory at Real Madrid.

Part 4: World Cup in Russia gives glimpse into next generation of Balon D'Or hopefuls

King Kane sitting pretty at the top of the goal scoring charts

Making the last entry of the Balon D'Or hopefuls Harry Kane has been one of the stories of world football considering that just four years ago he made just a total of 15 appearances for Spurs while scoring just three goals. Before that he had spent loan spells at various football teams in the lower tiers of English football.

That's all in the past now as Kane's fortunes have experienced an upswing with him netting 20 plus goals in Spurs colours for the past four seasons and by the projected estimates he could one day go on to eclipse even Alan Shearer as the greatest goal scorer in English football.

Heading into the world cup the England captain, at just 24, scored a total of 37 goals for Spurs by the end of 2017/18 season and he's already making his mark on the world game.

Kane is currently sitting pretty at the top of the goal scorer rankings with six goals in his first appearance at a World Cup finals. Added to that his England team should be favourites to at least make it to the semi-finals or at best go on to win the whole thing with the way things are currently unfolding in Russia.

Even if a world cup medal is not in Kane's immediate future he has the look of a player who could became the greatest forward the game has ever seen with his ability to score goals with either foot, his head and different kinds of goals.

Part 3:World Cup in Russia gives glimpse into next generation of Balons D'Or hopefuls

Belgium magic man Hazard will look to inspire his nation's best generation to the world title

Born into a footballing family Eden Hazard has risen within the football structures from grassroots level all the way to the senior squad as the best player in the golden generation of Belgian football.

Fleet footed, tricky and with an ability to either score or create goals Hazard had the look of a player who could rival the powers of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. However, as brilliant as he can be on his day, a hallmark of Hazard's career so far has been the fact that when he's done well during one season he experiences a dip in form such as been the case over the two last seasons.

Hazard played a starring role in Antonio Conte's first season as Chelsea cantered towards the league title, but last season didn't perform consistently last season.

Nonetheless, Hazard has been one the brightest talents of the current era of football, and if he can put his inconsistencies aside we could very well see him in the near future crowned the world's best.

The chances of living up to that could be made more likely with a summer move to Real Madrid being rumoured in the media, but for now the Belgian ace can make a statement by helping his star studded Belgian team to the world cup, and what better way would there be to stake a claim for a Balon D'Or in the future than to outshine the player everyone expects to be world's best when Belgium face Brazil in the World Cup quarterfinals.

Part 2: World Cup in Russia gives glimpse at the next generation of Ballons D'Or hopefuls

Cool as a cucumber in front of goal and fleet footed Mbappe has that special thing about him

A player who has come seemingly out of nowhere, Kylian Mbappe is one young man with the look of greatness about him. That claim to greatness was substantiated as the prodigious French talent, and Cristiano Ronaldo fan, effectively ended Lionel Messi's hopes of winning the world cup with the two goals he scored as France dumped a disjointed Argentina in a 4-3 win for Le Bleus.

In doing so the young Frenchman replicated a feat performed by none other than the game's greatest player Pele in becoming the only teenagers to score twice in a World Cup game.

In just two seasons Mbappe has won two Ligue 1 titles with Monaco and Paris Saint Germain respectively. But his claim to fame came in his breakthrough season where he helped Monaco to a semi-final spot in the UEFA Champions League and broke a few records along the way.

By the looks of things Mbappe looks like the biggest threat to the other hopefuls considering he's only just 19 years old, and the young Frenchman looks to be the future of football and could even give the likes of Neymar and Eden Hazard a run for their money not too long from now.

World Cup in Russia gives glimpse at the next generation of Balon D'Or hopefuls (Part 1)

NEYMAR has waited for some time to be proclaimed the world's best and it seems that wait could finally be over

With the dust settling after an intrigurging past few weeks at this year's Fifa World Cup in Russia seeing a number of subplots take place, chief of which included the exit of champions Germany in the group stage, surprise exits of Argentina, Spain and Portugal.

The biggest of the taking point would be what looks to be the end of the World Cup careers of modern day greats Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who once again failed to live up to their club form, as their respective teams fell at the last 16 with both failing to register a goal in a knockout match of a world cup.

By the looks of it we could be looking an end of an era of dominance for the duo given their respective ages of 31 and 33.

By design or out of pure coincidence the players still participating in Russia look to be the next generation of players who will be looking to claim the mantle of the world's best player, and it could all begin by doing what two of the greatest players couldn't do by winning the World Cup.

Without further a due let's take a look at what the future of football could like in a few years.

Just like Ronaldo and Messi Brazilian ace Neymar rose prominence at an early age and in his formative years media attention was on the Brazilian from across the pond as Europe looked to lure him away from his homeland at 14.

However, he would remain in Brazil where he blazed a path to glory for himself and duly he was labelled not only as the next big thing in football, but was proclaimed the heir apparent to Pele's title as the sports greatest player. In the eyes of many he looked to have the potential to surpass both Ronaldo and Messi in his ascension to the summit of the sport when he made his professional debut at 17.

Those claims looked to be substantiated as Neymar played a starring role in bringing an end to Santos' 48 year wait for a Copa Libertadores title. By the time he'd turned 21 the wonder kid had won everything there was to offer in Brazilian football and had scored over 100 goals for Santos.

In 2013 he made the decision to move to the Nou Camp and before that, left a lasting impression on his future teammates when he caused havoc against world champions Spain as Brazil lifted the 2013 FIFA Confedeations Cup on home soil in a 3-0 win.

What followed was an illustrious career at Barcelona where he also won everything on offer including a league and European cup treble. 

In 2017 he would make a shock move to Paris and in the process became the world's most expensive player at € 222 million with his transfer to Paris Saint Germain.

At 26, Neymar looks to be the next player in line to be named the world's best and has shown good consistency for club and country having scored 57 goals for Brazil.