THE World Cup semi-finals take place tonight (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday) with European nations progressing at the expense of the South Americans; as a result the tournament now has a wide-open feel to it, as demonstrated by the outright prices.  

France are 2/1, England 11/4 (Boylesports); Belgium 14/5 and Croatia 5/1 (Skybet).

France v Belgium (tonight 7pm, BBC1). Match prices: France 31/20; Draw 23/10; Belgium 21/10 (Betway). To qualify for the final: France 5/6 (Spreadex); Belgium 11/10.

France are marginally earmarked by the bookmakers to become the first finalist when the two neighbouring countries do battle at the Krestovsky Stadium in St Petersburg but in truth, this is a devilishly difficult match to call.  

Belgium were superb in their victory over Brazil but unconvincing in their previous match against Japan. France have been the more solid and performed well in defeating Uruguay in the quarter-finals.

All things considered, the 90-minute stalemate makes most appeal at 23/10; the expectancy on a coin-flip type game is that this price would be much nearer to or even at 2/1.

Prediction: France 1 Belgium 1 (Belgium to win on penalties).

England v Croatia (tomorow, Wednesday 7pm, ITV). Match prices: England 27/20; Draw 11/5 (Betfred); Croatia 13/5. To qualify for the final: England 4/6; Croatia 11/8 (both prices Spreadex).  

The English have defied all recent tournament form by not suffering a pitifully embarrassing exit and while there is still time for that to happen their performances to date suggest otherwise.

Steely determination, attention to detail (yes it has taken them 52 years, but they have realised that practising penalties is beneficial) and suddenly they are beating teams that on paper they are supposed to beat.

However, Croatia are another notch up on Colombia and Sweden in terms of difficulty. The Balkans have adopted a Portugal Euro 2016-type approach in scrambling through matches, largely thanks to their goalkeeper in penalty shoot-outs, but they are far from out of either this match or the competition as a whole. That said, they have to step up considerably on their performances against Russia and Denmark to have realistic prospects of toppling England.

Prediction: England 2 Croatia 1.