France 4 Croatia 2: Les Bleus seal their second World Cup!
Parents and Friends,
The heavens opened for the closing ceremony and a rain-soaked France were crowned world champions for the second time with a 4-2 victory over Croatia.
It was a fantastic final and a great spectacle especially for any young kid watching for the first time.
It’s all over for another four years but we have the women’s World Cup next summer in of all places… France!
Some of the stand-out stats from the match were…
- Les Blues were the first team to score four goals in a World Cup final since Italy lost 4-1 to Brazil in 1970 and it was the highest-scoring since England beat West Germany 4-2 at Wembley in 1966.
- The six-goal tally matched the combined total of the previous four finals 2002 (2), 2006 (2), 2010 (1), 2014 (1).
- France’s Kylian Mpappe became the youngest player since Pele to score in the final and was named the tournament's Best Young Player.
- Croatia captain Luka Modric won the Golden Ball as the best player at the tournament.
- Croatia’s Mario Mandzukic was just the second player in World Cup history after Ernie Brandts (1978) to score a goal and an own goal in the same game
- Raphael Varane (Real Madrid, France) joined legends such as Franz Beckenbauer (Bayern Munich, West Germany) in the exclusive group of players (11) to win the European Cup and World Cup in the same year.
- Dejan Lovren (Liverpool, Croatia) was added to the list of players (10) to lose both finals and is in good company; Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Bayern Munich, West Germany) and Thierry Henry (Arsenal, France).
Most neutrals were cheering on Croatia and they certainly were a little unlucky with France’s opening goal.
Griezmann went down, referee Nestor Pitana called a foul and the Atletico Madrid forward whipped in a wicked freekick.
Croatia were far too deep defending the set piece and Mandzukic headed the ball into his own net.
The Juventus striker became the first player ever to score an own goal in a World Cup final.
Pericic equalized for Croatia in the 28th minute.
France failed to clear Modric’s floated freekick and the Inter Milan winger picked up Vida’s lay-off at the top of the box.
He sold Kante a dummy before blasting a vicious shot with his left foot past a helpless Lloris.
The big talking point came soon after with Pitana calling handball in the box on Perisic.
Griezmann’s corner was flicked on by Matuidi and the ball struck Perisic's hand although he seemed to know very little about it
Initially Patana signaled for another corner but overturned it after review via VAR.
Griezmann tucked the penalty away nicely to make it 2-1 at half-time.
Dalic’s side dominated the opening exchanges of the second half but France hit them on the counter attack in the 59th minute.
Pogba played a peach of a pass into space for Mbappe and the Paris Saint-Germain striker burned Strinic and crossed for Griezmann.
Griezmann took a few touches before setting up Pogba who at the second attempt fired the ball past a wrong-footed Subasic.
Mbappe made history six minutes later when Hernandez’s brilliant solo run down the left side found him 25-yards out and with time and space he drilled the ball low past the Monaco goalkeeper.
There was more drama in the 69th minute when Lloris tried to beat Mandzukic after receiving a back pass in the six-yard-box.
Mandzukic managed to get the ball the ball in the net by tackling the Spur’s goalkeeper.
The game finished 4-2 and while Croatia dominated possession (65.5%) and had twice (14) as many shots as France, Les Bleus were more ruthless in their finishing scoring four goals from seven shots.
The victory was a triumph for Deschamps and he became only the third person to win the World Cup as a player and manager after Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer.
In his post-match press conference, Deschamps attributed victory to hard work and mental strength:
"We did not play a huge game but we showed mental quality. And we scored four goals anyway. They deserved to win. The group worked so hard and we had some tough moments along the way. It hurt so much to lose the Euros two years ago, but it made us learn too. The win is not about me, it's the players who won the game. For 55 days, we have done a lot of work. It is the supreme coronation. We are proud to be French. The victory in the match belongs to them."
France weren’t a flair team or spectacular, but they played to their strengths which was Mbappe’s pace and Griezmann’s creativity.
Deschamps’ side were tactically sound, well organized and they had character, power and a strong identity.
They did what they had to do and despite being the second youngest team at the tournament they were only ever behind for 9 minutes (vs. Argentina) over the course of the entire tournament.
Deschamps played multiple systems and gave every individual player an understanding of their role, no more so with Pogba who looked a different player than we see every week in the Premier League.
Croatia went one better than the 1998 generation that lost the semi-final to France.
They were a brave side winning three knockout games in extra time and they overachieved while showing what hard work, commitment and belief can do.
Mandzukic’s willingness to hunt Lloris down at 4-1 epitomized this Croatia team and in Rakitic, Perisic and Modric they had three outstanding performers in midfield with Modric thoroughly deserved the Golden Ball.
Hard to believe that back in 2012 the Real Madrid man was voted the worst signing of the season in La Liga by readers of the Spanish newspaper Marca!
Modric gave six cultured performances at this tournament and his midfield dominance was reminiscent of Andrea Pirlo’s imperious displays at Euro 2012.
Like Pirlo, Modric has vision, composure, and has an uncanny ability to keep possession under pressure and then pick the right pass.
The Croatian captain is an extremely hard worker too and covered the most distance of any player at the tournament, an incredible 63 km in all 6 matches.
Next week I’ll be sharing more thoughts on the tournament and my top 5 goals!
Chat soon,
Patrick
Soccer1-1.com
