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Russia World Cup 18

Bjornebye

By Bjornebye,
in FF - Football Forum

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That was probably the weirdest World Cup final ever. Not only did it have an own goal, a highly contentious penalty award and Loris doing a Lloris, but, other than France's approach in the early stages, it lacked the cageyness so typical of major tournament finals. At times it was hard to tell that this was actually the World Cup final.

 

Croatia started with the greater intent but there were few few real openings as France kept things tight. Then Griezmann conned a free kick out of the ref, from which Mandzukic nodded past his own goalkeeper to give France the lead.

 

Croatia equalised not long afterwards when Perisic controlled and fired past Lloris from the edge of the area. Perisic is an odd player for me. At times he looks like a Poundland Robben and a real threat, and at others he is as peripheral as it gets. Like all the Croatia players, he works his bollocks off for the national cause. He was then involved in the most contentious moment of the game when adjusted after a VAR review to have deliberately handled the ball. Yes the ball hit his hand but he was shaping himself to head away a second ball that dropped much lower than he'd expected. I don't think he meant to do that, and it took several minutes of discussion followed by a review before the ref eventually awarded it. Griezmann buried the penalty with the minimum of fuss.

 

The game suggested that there might be at least 1 further goal in the second half but we were rewarded with 3. France had to batten down the hatches at the start of the second half as Croatia came at them with renewed vigour, but didn't manage to breach their back line.

 

Then Pogba played a great ball out to Mbappe, followed up the play and eventually tucked the ball home from the edge of the area at the second attempt. He actually played very well today, and showed that if he can be disciplined and cut out the posturing, he's got all the tools in his game to be a genuine box-to-box dynamo.

 

Mbappe had shown glimpses of his pace but hadn't been a factor much in the game, but when he found space 30 yards out, he first an excellent low shot into the net to basically seal the game. There was still a little under half an hour to go at this point.

 

Then Lloris did a Loris, but didn't have the handy excuse of being concussed to explain away his brainfart. The way he dealt with that situation suggested he didn't even notice Mandzukic right in front of him. Mandzukic is tall and likes a physical battle so he's not exactly inconspicuous. Lloris' touch cannoned off Mandzukic and into the open net much like Benzema's goal in the CL final. It meant Mandzukic was the first player to score at both ends in a World Cup final.

 

Croatia just didn't have enough to break the French defence down, and France were capable of running riot on the counter if they so wished. They didn't need to over-extend themselves though and it finished 4-2.

 

That ref looks like a clumsy oaf doesn't he? The commentators said he once played a prison guard in a movie back home in Argentina. He could also have played Lennie in a stage production of Steinbeck's classic Of Mice And Men for all I know.

 

When that poll thread was posted for who you thought would win the World Cup, I'd picked France before the tournament, and that was on the strength in depth they have in their squad. Most of them are first choices at club level, and the national side had gone close to winning the European Championship only 2 years ago, and reached the quarter finals in their previous 2 international tournaments. The personnel may have change a bit over those 6 years but they've been developing an enviable strength in depth and are seeing it pay off.

 

Giroud might have fulfilled the Stephane Guivarch role of looking out of place in this side, but his unselfish work meant Griezmann could be more influential in attack, and freeing him up freed up Mbappe to explode. Mbappe had a few excellent moments rather than completely overshading all before him, but if he continues to develop, he could soon be considered to be amongst the genuine greats. Needs to cut out the Neymar-like acting though.

 

EDIT: Has any other World Cup had a presentation ceremony in the pouring rain? Even I wanted a hug off the Croatian president. That girl is built to hug!

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