That night underdogs Croatia came from behind to beat England 2-1 at the Lushniki to qualify for the finals, I mightily battled tears and failed.
Croatia had come into this tournament as unfancied contenders; no one really gave them a chance.
To be honest, at the outset, I never fancied that they would make it out of the group stages let alone reach the finals.
"No one gave us a chance. The pundits said that we were walking dead and that we were tired," Croatia's talisman Luka Modrić said in an interview with a journalist.
When they comprehensively thrashed favourites Argentina 3-0, scores pinned it down to luck rather than the quality of the squad.
Squad members of the Blazers, as Croatia is nicknamed, did not allow the negative chatter to distract them from the bigger goal, which was to reach the finals and perhaps win the coveted World Cup trophy for the first time in their country's history.
This squad, led by its captain Luka Modric', has made history, reaching the final for the first time ever, exorcising the ghost of 1998 when the squad's golden generation was denied by France the finals slot.
It is hard not to be moved by the determination, the togetherness, the resilience and the fighting spirit that the Croats have displayed over the course of the Russia 2018 World Cup.
Watching them play has been a humbling lesson in the power of self-belief, hard work, and pushing on in spite of the odds stacked against you.
"You have to believe in yourself, and be self-sufficient, as there are ups and downs on the way. You have to fight to make your dreams come true and that's what motivated me throughout my career,'' Luka Modric' says.
I will be rooting for them as they take on France today at the Lushniki Arena and be part of this unimaginable piece of history.
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