MOSCOW (AFP) - England captain Harry Kane could not hide his desperate disappointment after his side's 2-1 extra-time defeat against Croatia in the semi-finals of the World Cup in Moscow on Wednesday (July 11).

"We're gutted. It hurts, it hurts a lot," Kane said after the match at the Luzhniki Stadium.

"It's going to hurt for a while of course. We can hold our heads up high. It's been a fantastic journey, we got further than anyone else thought we would have," he added.

Playing in their first World Cup semi-final since 1990, England took a fifth-minute lead through Kieran Trippier's superb free-kick.

But Croatia summoned the strength to come back in the second half, equalising through Ivan Perisic before Mario Mandzukic got the winner in the 109th minute.

"It's been great to get to this stage and we know we've done everyone proud but we wanted to go on and win it," Kane added.

"We thought we were just good enough, we thought we could have done that. But we've fallen just a bit short. It hurts. I don't know what else to say."