Croatia vs France final full-time report: It rained in Moscow today. First it was the goals, then the tears, and then the clouds opened and let down the rain, beneath it were a jumping, joyous bunch of Frenchmen who had just won the Fifa World Cup 2018 Final, their second in history. They danced and ran around the ground, waving the French flag. Not that they needed any help but the loudspeakers at the Luzhniki Stadium were on full blast, the tune — Hans Zimmer’s theme for Pirates of the Caribbean. There was another bunch, who were staring into the oblivion. The men in chequered jerseys — the reds and whites. The Hans Zimmer music, the roaring fans, the drizzling, none of that mattered. Just like that, Croatia’s captain Luka Modric had tears in his eyes.
You need a little bit of luck to win the World Cup. France had that in a good measure in Moscow on Sunday as they beat Croatia 4-2 to win their second-ever World Cup trophy. In a match otherwise evenly poised, it was an own-goal by Mario Mandzukic and a penalty that gave France an upper hand who sealed the match with two wonderful second-half strikes by Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe. Ivan Perisic and Mandzukic scored for Croatia, but that proved to be insufficient in a high-scoring match, where the number of goals was highest since 1966, when England won 4-2 after extra time. France maybe deserve this title, but Croatia will also be well within their rights to complain that the luck was hard on them.
Les Bleus got a lucky start after Mario Mandzukic scored an own goal early in the first half. Eighteenth minute, to be precise. Antoine Griezmann won a free-kick about 30 yards from goal. Griezmann’s delivery into the box was met by Manzdzukic who rose the highest to get an unfortunate touch that ended up inside his own net. The goal came against the run of play as the Croats had dominated the proceedings in the starting minutes, so much so that France’s goal was their first shot on goal.
Ivan Perisic levelled the scores in the 29th minute with a wonder strike with his left foot. Croatia’s goal too came from a free-kick which France failed to clear. Perisic got the ball inside the box after some fine work by Vida and drilled his effort past Hugo Lloris.
However, Perisic the hero soon turned into Perisic the villain after France got a penalty in the 33th minute. France appealed for a handball by Persic inside the box. The referee took his time before consulting VAR and then pointing to the spot. Griezmann stood over the penalty and rolled his spot-kick past Danijel Subasic into the bottom left-hand corner to bring France into the front once again.
Source : BS
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