Croatia defeated England 2-1 in extra time to advance to the World Cup finals.

England took the lead through Kieran Trippier's free kick goal in the 5th minute, but Croatia fought back, first with a Ivan Persisc strike in the 68th minute, before Mario Mandzukic's effort in extra time sealed their trip to the Finals.

Cue celebrations.

This is the first time they have made the finals of a World Cup, the closest they have gotten before this was a 3rd place finish in the 1998 World Cup held in France.

Less than 5 million

With a population of just over 4.1 million, they are one of the smallest countries to have made it to the World Cup.

The distinction of the smallest, however, still belongs to Uruguay, who won the World Cup in 1930 and 1950. They currently have a population of around 3.4 million people. Uruguay exited this edition's World Cup after a defeat by France at the Quarterfinals.

This continues a longstanding tradition of small countries punching well above their weight.

The Iceland team for instance made it into the quarter finals of the most recent Euros, coincidentally by also beating England, before getting beaten by France.

Iceland did it with a part-time dentist at their helm. They have a population of under 400,000.

While the Croatian team is made up of full-time professionals, they too had obstacles to overcome.

Luka Modric, their star midfielder from Real Madrid, did not experience your typical footballing story.

When he was 6, his grandfather was shot dead.

His family became refugees, in a warzone.

He grew up to the sound of grenades exploding.

Coaches said he was too weak and too shy to play football.

Today, Luka Modric just led Croatia its first ever #WorldCup final.#CROENG pic.twitter.com/plOsy9nQcq

— Muhammad Lila (@MuhammadLila) July 11, 2018

But they've made it, and that's all that matters.

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Image via Soccer AM Youtube channel