All you need to know about Croatia on and off the pitch
After victories over Shakira's Colombia and Abba's Sweden, England's passage to a first World Cup final since 1966 is blocked by Doris Dragović's Croatia.
Not too familiar with her? She's only the independent nation's best ever Eurovision finisher (fourth, 1999)!
But there's plenty more to learn about the small country with the remarkably strong football pedigree beyond niche europop stars before the semi-final kicks off, live on ITV, on Wednesday evening.
From Game of Thrones to water polo, via arguably the most picturesque open air cinema in the world, here's your pre-match briefing on everything notable about the Croats on and off the field.
Plus, an answer the question: where does that red and white checkerboard strip come from?
Before we get to the fun stuff, who are out to stop football 'coming home'?
The 'golden generation'.
Yes, the tag given to the England era of Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard and Ferdinand has been applied to a Croatia squad whose world class talents have been plucked from a population of only 4.28 million (the 129th largest in the world).
The star men are midfielders Luka Modrić and Ivan Rakitić, while striker Mario Mandžukić is a high-class pub quiz answer as a rare player who has scored for two different clubs (Bayern Munich and Juventus) in separate Champions League finals, so is another man for the big occasion.
Other players familiar to English fans are Liverpool centre back Dejan Lovren, former Tottenham defender Vedran Ćorluka and ex-Leicester striker Andrej Kramarić and there's other outstanding talent like Inter Milan midfielder Ivan Perišić and Real Madrid midfielder Mateo Kovačić that line up in a dangerously flexible 4-3-3 formation.
Gosh. So are England the underdogs?
Well look at it another way and it's still the same Croatia team that finished behind Iceland in qualification and had to defeat Greece in the playoffs to even get to Russia.
Croatia impressed by winning all three of their group D games - including the 3-0 humbling of Lionel Messi's Argentina - but have required successive penalty shootouts, over Denmark and hosts Russia, to get to the semis.
They have so far played below their potential, possibly weighed down by this being the star generation's last realistic chance of glory on the biggest stage before age kicks in.
England's world ranking of 12th is also superior to Croatia's 20th spot in the Fifa list. Most pundits are calling it a 50-50 match up though.
The teams' most memorable encounter came at a rain-soaked Wembley in 2007 when Croatia's 3-2 upset victory meant the Three Lions - led by the umbrella-protected Steve McClaren - failed to qualify for Euro 2008.
What's Croatia's World Cup record like?
The nation that claimed independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 (when only nine of England’s World Cup squad were alive) and fought a four-year war to protect it arrived as a footballing force in the late 1990s.
Having impressed at Euro 96 in their first major tournament, Croatia went a stage better at World Cup 98.
The goals of tournament top scorer Davor Šuker powered the team to the semis before they fell short of the final in a 2-1 defeat to hosts France.
A few days later Croatia beat the Netherlands by the same scoreline in the third-fourth playoff to claim a celebrated bronze medal.
Since then Croatian teams have gone out in the group stages in three of the four World Cup tournaments (they failed to qualify for 2010 shortly after Fabio Capello's England hammered them 5-1 at Wembley in revenge for the 2007 defeat) before this year's unbeaten run.
Who's their Gareth Southgate?
Zlatko Dalić is the man in charge and the comparisons to Southgate aren't too misplaced.
Like the former Middlesbrough boss, he's only had limited success in club football (his handful of trophy wins have come with teams in Albania, Saudi Arabia and the UAE) and was very much unfancied when he took the national job.
Unlike England's waistcoat-wearing tactician, Dalić has failed to establish himself as a fashion icon, though he could always reintroduce the Croatian-invented necktie to stand out in the dugouts.
But after the best run in two decades, Dalić is also enjoying high praise in his native press.
He made his mark on the squad when he dealt with substitute Nikola Kalinic refusing to play in the group stages, citing a bad back. Kalinic is now continuing to watch the World Cup side - from home.
What are their fans like?
Distinctively covered in the checkerboard red and white (more on that later), and often powered on a matchday diet of "Koštice" and "Kikiriki". That's seeds and peanuts to you and me.
And ever-more frequently seen in water polo caps.
The nation have been crowned world champs in the water twice (and were Olympic winners at London 2012) but the fan connection is actually a tribute to ex-Spurs defender Ćorluka.
He was given a water polo cap by the team physio during the 2016 Euros after his head cracked open, an inventive solution so iconic it now resides in a Uefa museum.
What other sporting achievements can they boast?
Croatia has won Olympic gold in handball and delivered a host of NBA stars in basketball, while ice hockey is surprisingly popular in a nation that enjoys more hours of sunshine each year than Sydney (around 2,715).
The most celebrated sporting victory was probably Goran Ivanisevic's win at Wimbledon in 2001 when he became the first man to claim the singles title as a (tournament-awarded) wildcard entry.
He later coached his compatriot Marin Cilic to the US Open title in 2014 too.
I get it, they're good. Can we get to Game of Thrones now?
Fair enough.
Croatia has enjoyed a wonderfully rich history through the centuries as a changing state prior to regaining independence in 1991 but, yes, it's the HBO mega-hit that appears to have cemented it as a destination on the modern tourist map.
The Roman palaces that once served Diocletian, the island on which Richard the Lionheart apparently sought shelter after a shipwreck and the dramatic castles dotting the Croatian coastline are now known to a global audience because filming scouts identified them as the perfect backdrop for turning George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire book series into telly gold.
Croatia's real history certainly reads like a Game of Thrones narrative with warring kings, tactical pacts and bloody foreign takeovers - including Napoleon in the early 1800s - dictating its fortunes through the centuries until it finally broke free from the former Yugoslavia.
The land has been used by crews before - from Fiddler on the Roof to Star Wars: The Last Jedi - but no film had given the sapphire waters and ancient towns anywhere near as much exposure as GoT.
Dubrovnik provided the main filming location for King's Landing, the fictional capital of Westeros, and competing tours now run in the city and capital Zagreb to introduce show fans to the House of the Undying and the location used for the Purple Wedding among many more fantasy sites of interest.
What else do Game of Throne fans do while in Croatia?
They can take in a film at one of the most impressive big screen locations in the world.
The ampitheatre in Pula is the world's sixth largest and what once housed bloody Roman gladiator fights now screens the showpiece open air movies at the annual Pula Film Festival.
If the cinema proves perfect for a couple's night out, those on a romantic getaway may wish to avoid Croatia's Museum of Broken Relationships.
You'd think it would be homed in Split, but in fact it's Zagreb that hosts the gallery founded by a couple after a break up.
The museum is "dedicated to heartbreak, where a crowd-sourced collection of objects tells the story of lost love". There's even an axe on display "to chop up an ex-partner's furniture".
Any other notable Croatia trivia?
Here's a humdinger: the town of Hum is purportedly home to only 23 people, making it the world's smallest.
Another good fact - which is arguably a bit 1-0-1 to dog lovers - is that the breed Dalmatian originates in Croatia, taking its name from the Roman region of Dalmatia. It's why the Croatian coastline is known as the Dalmatian coast.
But what about the red and white checkers?
Ah yes. You've made it this far, so here's your reward...
The famous checkerboard colours at the centrepoint of the Croatia flag - known as chequy - possibly represent the 'white' and 'red' regions of Croatia or a medieval tribe.
However, according to legend, it's all down to chess.
A captured former Croatian king Drzislav is said to have defeated his royal rival, Venetian doge Peter II Orseolo, at the game three times to earn his freedom. He then celebrated his victory by adding the chessboard to the Croatian insignia.
So when a commentator describes England-Croatia as a "bit of a chess match" on Wednesday night Three Lions fans will hope the descendants of Drzislav don't claim checkmate by the final whistle.