ENGLAND lost in the semi-final of the World Cup to Croatia.

Gareth Southgate's men lost 2-1 in extra time.

Striker Harry Kane told ITV Sport: "It's tough. We're gutted, we've worked so hard and the fans were amazing.

"It was a tough game, a 50-50 game, I'm sure we'll look back at stuff we could have done better but we worked as hard as we could.

"This will hurt for a while but we can hold our heads up, it's been a fantastic journey but we've got to learn from it and take what we can.

"We created some good chances, being 1-0 up we got a little too deep at times and didn't get enough pressure on the ball. There are lot of ifs and buts. In a lot of games it's small margins and it went their way today.

"Until they scored we were always under the cosh, then when they scored we picked it up again. But they played well and made it difficult for us.

"It's been great to get to this stage but we wanted to go on and win it. We felt we were good enough but have fallen just a bit short."

Former England defender Gary Neville believes Southgate's squad can be proud of their achievements.

Neville said on ITV1: "The first thing to say is this team has taken us to a place we never imagined we could get.

"I said before the tournament England never overachieve. This team has overachieved getting to the semi-final and they can all be absolutely proud.

"They have taken the nation with them. You see all the fans out in the park to see them. I never thought I'd see scenes like that this World Cup.

"They can be absolutely proud. We did say before the game these lads have to take this opportunity because it may never come again and all I hope as I look at them now crying, disappointed, upset, is that they get another opportunity as good as the one they've just had."

Striker Kane added: "This shows we can be up there, win knockout games and get to semi-finals. The next step now is to go one (step) further.

"We've built a great foundation and we're proud of what we've achieved - but we want more.

"We have to dust ourselves down, be proud of what we've achieved and go again in a couple of years."

Former Croatia defender and manager Slaven Bilic, speaking as a touchline pundit on ITV1, could not hide his delight at his country's success.

"It shows smaller countries such as Wales (looking at fellow pundit Ryan Giggs) that if you work hard, dreams are possible," he said.

"You thought we were going to get tired, but towards the end of the game Brozovic, Modric, they were everywhere."

Tottenham's Kane added on BBC Radio 5 Live: "For one reason or another it wasn't our day today."

Boss Southgate said: "We lost a little bit of control with the ball and started to go a bit longer...you're ahead in a huge game and nobody knows how you're going to react.

"There were a few waves of attack we didn't quite defend in the composed manner we have but great credit to the players because they recovered that in extra-time and I felt took control of the game again.

"On good chances we've probably had as many as Croatia have. It's a blow to concede as late as we did.

"We know the team we brought was the most inexperienced in the competition but we gain that experience from matches in this tournament and performing under pressure."