How Croatia ensured that this English coach was completely torn apart in the press

For PSV player Ivan Perisic as well, the 2026 World Cup with Croatia is about to get underway. Perisic & co. begin the World Cup in North America with a match against easy World Champions England. This is a clash with a lot of history since both countries, among other things, played each other at the 2018 World Cup in the semi-final and the Croatians reached the final in part thanks to Perisic.

Both countries also faced each other in the qualifying round for the 2008 European Championship in Austria and Switzerland. The Russia coached by former PSV manager Guus Hiddink was also represented in this qualifying group.

For England, the qualifying run for the 2008 European Championship did not go as planned. Under the leadership of Steve McClaren, who was appointed as manager of The Three Lions after the 2006 World Cup, the English were unable to impress during the qualification cycle and, partly as a result of this, McClaren was regularly booed by the England supporters in the stands.

So in October 2006, among other things, there was a painful defeat on a visit to Croatia (2-0) and in October 2007 there was a loss on a visit to Russia (2-1), leaving qualification for the European Championship hanging by a thread. On 21 November 2007, the English played the crucial match at Wembley against the already qualified Croatia and a draw would mean that England would go to the European Championship due to the better head-to-head record compared to Russia.

Despite the home advantage and the fact that the Croats had already been assured of qualification for the European Championship, this match became a nightmare for the English. Thanks in part to a blunder by goalkeeper Scott Carson, Croatia was already 0-2 up within a quarter of an hour thanks to goals from Niko Kranjcar and Ivica Olic.

Eleven minutes after the break England returned to the game with a converted penalty from midfielder Frank Lampard. Nine minutes later, the English comeback was complete after a goal by striker Peter Crouch, assisted by David Beckham, and at that moment England was virtually certain of qualification for the European Championship.

In the 77th minute, however, the nightmare scenario for The Three Lions still unfolded. A long-range shot from Mladen Petrić made it 2-3, allowing Croatia, who were previously placed, to still manage to win, and because of Russia’s 0-1 victory over Andorra, the Russians under the leadership of Guus Hiddink went past the English in the group, meaning that England therefore failed to qualify for the European Championship in Austria and Switzerland.

This meant for England the first missed final tournament since the 1994 World Cup in the United States. A day after the debacle at Wembley, national team coach Steve McClaren was sidelined by the English football association FA and replaced by Fabio Capello.

In addition, the coach also received heavy criticism from the English media, which tore him to the ground. Thus, the newspaper The Guardian ''Hopeless. Hapless. Helples'' headlined it after the setback, and The Daily Mail described McClaren as the 'Wally with the brolly', which roughly comes down to 'sucker with the umbrella' as a reference to the fact that the coach stood with an umbrella above his head along the touchline during the match for the duration of the game.