Croatia beat England in the semi-finals of the World Cup in Russia, something which Jordan Henderson bitterly remembers.
The UEFA Nations League clash with Croatia on Sunday is England’s 17th and final game of 2018 but, for all the progress made under Gareth Southgate, the semi-final defeat in Moscow casts a shadow.
Henderson is out to end 2018 on a high and avenge the defeat. "We will always have that defeat inside us — it was the World Cup semi-final. But since then we have come so far and we need to produce again on Sunday", he told the 'Daily Mail'.
"Then, after the game, hopefully we can see a lot of positive things and good things. It would get us to a semi-final again and that’s what our focus is on. But it will be tough because Croatia are a fantastic team."
"It would have been easy to think, 'Yeah, we had a decent time', and go through the motions. But the first camp when we were back in September, we knew we had a lot to improve on if we want to go further in tournaments.
"We want to get to finals and win competitions. We had a decent World Cup but we could have done better, so that has spurred us on. Since then we have been outstanding, especially against Spain (in October). Croatia is a huge opportunity for us."