After weathering an early storm, France have taken a two-goal victory in the final of the 2018 FIFA World Cup over Croatia in Moscow.
France were right up against it during the early going of the contest, finding themselves almost permanently on the back foot with Croatia attacking.
The Croatians were unable to find an early goal though with Les Blues scoring against the run of play. A free kick from just outside the penalty area was first touched by Raphael Varane before going onto the scoresheet as an own goal against Mario Mandzukic.
Croatia continued their attacking ways, knowing they had to equalise and eventually did. A ball was fired into the box, deflected out and Ivan Perisic then hit a wonderful goal from the edge of the penalty area.
Controversy would follow at the back end of the first half when the VAR became involved in a World Cup final for the first time, picking up a Croatian handball.
Antoine Griezmann steped up to ice the penalty, allowing France to take a 2-1 lead into the halftime break despite being outplayed for most of the first half.
An early substitution in the first half for France seemed to bring them right back into the game though with N’Golo Kante taken off.
The French seemed like a different team afterwards, with Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe running in goals just six minutes apart to send France up 4-1.
The lead allowed them to enjoy the last half hour of the game with the contest virtually over, although a mistake from Hugo Lloris kept the light switched on at the end of the tunnel for Croatia, with Mario Mandzukic scoring on the back of it.
The 69th minute proved to be a consolation goal though with France stacking their defence and seeing out the final 20 minues of the game in solid fashion.
For France, it’s their second World Cup win following a victory in 1998.
France 4
Croatia 2
Saurebh Gandle
Roar Guru
Who would have thought i would be in France when they win the World Cup.
tom
Guest
SBS coverage an absolute disgrace. The presentation after the match was a nationalist Croatian rant by Lucy and the other Croatian on the show. Craig initially started the political rant by voicing the power of the game. The other two took the lead by Craig (as they always do) and went on this Croatian nationalist rant with the usual lines in such rants. If It wasn't for the picture quality I would have hooked up the computer and watched the optus coverage. I wish HD wasn't available that way it would have been a no brainer to which coverage I would have watched. I find the SBS coverage so irritating that I only start watching when the match starts. Then I have to endure Martyn Tyler. The excellent Martyn Tyler according to Lucy. Excellent at putting you to sleep. SBS must get new faces or drive knowledge fans insane during the premier league season. I will definitely sacrifice picture quality during the season.
Kurt
Guest
Funny sort of game. Croatia looked genuinely better for most of the first 60 minutes but then all of a sudden were 4-1 down. Still, France took their chances and got the overall rub of the green with decisions going their way and will consider themselves worthy champions. Full credit to Croatia for how they attacked the game though.
anon
Roar Pro
Best team won (you wouldn’t think so listening to this SBS coverage). Well done. Croatia bottled it with their first half errors (hand ball and own goal). Croatian keeper should cop a lot of blame too. Shame that England fixed the result against Belgium in the last group game, which created such lopsided sides of the draw in the knockout stage. France and Belgium were the two best teams.