Most World Cup Final's in my lifetime have been tense, nervous affairs.

Croatia were excellent for large periods of the game, but the French counterattack did the job superbly. And Mbappe was quiet for most of the game before he had a hand in Pogba's goal and then scored one himself!

From the Argentina match on he was the most dangerous player in the tournament.

But France were the best team in the knockout rounds.

France was simply the most versatile of the elite teams. They could win shootouts or defensive struggles. No other squad really showed that in the last 16.

Will be back here on this forum in 4 years!

Croatia outplayed France for most of the final and were more than a trifle unlucky with an own goal and a dubious penalty going against them in the first half, which allowed France to shut up shop and play on the counter afterwards.

I think Croatia and Belgium will be more fondly remembered from this tournament than France, the way, say, Netherlands and Poland are more remembered from 1974 than W. Germany are.

Still, great tournament, great final. I'm sorry it's all over.

Pitana's prolonged, meandering visit to the VAR was the stuff of conspiracy theories (and no doubt will be).

Last edited Wed Jul 18, 2018, 05:03 AM - Edit history (1)

Croatia couldn’t win a match in 90 minutes against three very average teams (Denmark/Russia/England). Pretty hard to figure out why they would have eventually beaten a superior French squad even if they hadn’t conceded those “clumsy” goals (as Modrić put it). They scored one legitimate goal the whole match (which was their 90-minute pattern from the knockout round on) and never really tested Lloris apart from that.

That said, their coach shouldn’t have panicked after it was 2-1 and moved his lines forward. Their initial approach was working. Once they did that they got shredded by the French, who could have easily added to their count if needed.