Gvardiol, whom Manchester City made the second-most expensive transfer ever for a defender ($99 million) last summer from German side Red Bull Leipzig, struggled to adapt to his new team and league.

Astonishing he is just 21 but already Josko Gvardiol has a) a beard and b) all of traits of a modern defender. So very good… Josko Gvardiol is a 21-year-old 6’1″ Croatian central defender ...

Gvardiol, it goes without saying, is superb at the things you would expect a top-class centre-back to be superb at. His most eye-catching moment in this tournament came against Belgium in stoppage ...