England vs Croatia: Jordan Henderson says Three Lions have improved since World Cup semi-final

England have another 'do or die' meeting with Croatia at Wembley on Sunday

If Jordan Henderson is still a little hung up on that night at the Luzhniki, he is determined not to show it.

The obvious question to ask, ahead of a second win-or-bust meeting with Croatia in the space of four months, is whether he and his England team-mates are out for revenge.

“I think you have to move on in football,” Henderson says when the subject is first raised, in the hours after Thursday’s 3-0 friendly victory over the United States. "It's about development, it's about the team."

Is this not a must-win game though, and not only because victory secures passages to the latter stages of the Nations League? “That's what we want to always do, when we play we always want to win no matter who it's against.”

This is a big opportunity to settle a score from the summer, isn’t it? “I'm sure you'll all make it big! It's a nice story for you isn't it?”

Henderson, always conscious of where the line of questioning was leading, admits after some further coaxing that the memory of being 22 minutes away from a World Cup final has not faded.

“I think deep down you'll always have it in the back of your mind because it's a huge moment for all of us, to lose that game of course, so it's always inside,” he concedes.

Yet whether it is experimentation with style and system, putting ageing stalwarts out to pasture, or bleeding in young talent, the emphasis under Gareth Southgate has more often than not been on the future rather than the past.

Henderson believes, since the semi-final, England have only looked ahead and that they are consequently a better team for it.

"I think we've reacted really well after the World Cup. I think it would have been easy to just think 'we've had a decent World Cup' and go through the motions, but the first camp back we were straight back at it.

"We knew we had a lot to improve on, a lot of work on to go further in tournaments, to get to finals, to win competitions. We knew we'd had a decent World Cup but we felt we could have done better.

"I think that spurred us to keep going and since then I think we've been outstanding, especially against Spain. I thought the lads were brilliant and they are the type of games we need to be winning against big teams like that.“We've won some big games, some good games, especially last camp. It's another big test for us. They're a good side, they've beaten Spain, so it'll be tough on Sunday. We just have to make sure we keep going, keep working hard, keep doing the right thing and if we do we'll get a good result.”

England will reach next summer's inaugural Nations League finals with a victory against Croatia on Sunday, but only a victory will do.

Mirroring last month's 0-0 in Rijeka will see Southgate's side finish second behind Spain in Group 4. A score draw or defeat will mean dropping down to League B and second-class citizenship until at least late 2020.

To end such a positive, transformative year with the strange new phenomenon of international relegation would be undeserved, whatever the result on Sunday, but England have little room for error in this tightly-contested group.That, perhaps, is why Southgate criticised his players for a perceived lack of discipline and defensive organisation after the victory over the United States. "If we do that on Sunday, we will lose," he warned.

Only the farewells to Wayne Rooney prevented a full-scale dressing-down and Henderson believes it would have been the first of the usually mild-mannered Southgate's tenure. "I think we haven't really given him an opportunity yet apart from maybe tonight at times," the midfielder says. "Hopefully he never has to and not on Sunday."

And if England still need any further incentive to ensure everything goes right against Croatia, they need only think back to four months ago.