Just Four Things: France Vs. Croatia

It Was Livened Alright

Not much was said about the main theme of the World Cup ‘Live It Up’. A lot of people felt indifferent about it. And yet, the title of the song would certainly describe the final. Maybe there are other song titles out there to describe this match. But let’s just go with this song title since it relates to the tournament. This World Cup final has goals galore, drama (More on that later) and even a calamitous goalkeeper error to boot when Hugo Lloris tried to be clever when he attempted to fool Mario Mandzukic, but the Croatian striker got his foot in to get the ball in.

However, Kylian Mbappe when going forward was his usual threatening self with his amazing runs and ended a phenomenal tournament with a strong showing, Paul Pogba showed up where it mattered the most as they scored great goals from outside the box. Antoine Griezmann was pivotal in the first two goals too and the defence remained focused and solid. Although Samuel Umtiti & Raphael Varane weren’t to be blamed for Croatia’s two goals.

France didn’t overrun Croatia, but they took their chances that were presented to them (With some luck along the way) and that made the difference. Didier Deschamps was tasked to take the team back to their best when he was appointed in 2012 and finally, he accomplished the mission as he became the third person ever to win the World Cup as player and manager (After Brazil’s Mario Zagallo & Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer).

Minor Tweak

Much was said about the ability of N’Golo Kante. Given how consistent he is as the holding midfielder, he was expected to keep Luka Modric quiet. Instead, he had a rare off day during of all the times, the most important game in his career. He wasn’t his usual best and got beaten to the ball easily, especially for Croatia’s equalizer when Domagoj Vida took the ball off him for Ivan Perisic to slam it into net.

Not only he was in a slump, also he got himself needlessly booked when a Croatia player was facing four French players including him that hampered his task further. While Paul Pogba committed to help out defending, France haven’t made any convincing headway especially building from the middle.

So France manager Didier Deschamps had to make the call: Replacing Kante with Steve N’Zonzi. With N’Zonzi being much bigger than Kante, he was making his presence known and the midfield looked much more stable. With N’Zonzi was holding the fort, it allowed Pogba to be more focused to go up more and also to distribute the ball from the centre of the park. Since N’Zonzi’ s introduction, France added two more goals (Pogba actually started the plays for both those goals, even for his). The minor change proved to be decisive as Pogba was released from his defensive duties to create havoc in those moments that proved to be crucial

Decisions, Decisions

And of course, how about a little drama to add to the final to make things more exciting? France may have scored two great goals later on, but their first two came from fortunate situations.

France opened the scoring with an own goal by Mario Mandzukic of all people. But the way France won the free-kick that lead to the goal was controversial when it seemed Griezmann dived to win the set-piece and Pogba looked offside when he tried to win a header (Although, BBC Sport Correspondent Richard Conway tweeted a picture that it was a tight call).

Then, with the score at 1-1, France won a corner. France were adamant that Perisic handled the ball as the ball comes in. After a long absence, VAR was in play. Argentinian referee Nestor Pitana judged it was a penalty and that Perisic did handled the ball. Problem is that Perisic looked more towards using his foot to try and get the ball in the air. It was terribly unlucky that the ball hit the hand, but one might argue it diverted the ball’s path and it was in an unnatural position. A lot of people though thought it was harsh and Perisic was hard done by for looking genuinely trying to win the ball with fair means. What do you all think?

Finally Out Of Steam

Croatia tried to keep going on having so close to the top prize in football. They had something in mind from the start. They tried to do the same thing like they did to England in the semi-finals. Getting the ball quickly to their wingers and they did well exposing Benjamin Pavard, a centre-back playing at right-back all tournament. Croatia looked the better side in the opening 10 minutes, but they conceded against the run of play when Mandzukic headed the ball into his own net from Griezmann’s free-kick.

Then they were awful conceding the two goals that sealed their fate. They allowed Pogba & Mbappe to get so much space and a good sight at goal that left them in a precarious position. They failed to react quickly by closing them down and they were punished for it. After Mandzukic closed the gap to two goals at 4-2, Croatia toiled to find more. But their passes were not as incisive they would liked, their shots gone wayward and their touches just about failed them.

It was so agonizing for Croatia’s best batch of talent, especially for Luka Modric who also had a cracking tournament. When will they ever get another chance like this?

Thing #4.5: Records

Heck, we also see a few records. Some of them includes this match being the 2nd highest scoring final with six goals (Behind the 1958 final where Brazil won 5-2 over hosts Sweden), Olivier Giroud did not have a single shot on target all tournament, Mbappe became only the 2nd teenager to score in a World Cup final (After the then 17-year old Pele in 1958) and Mandzukic became the unfortunate holder of scoring the first own goal in a World Cup final and also the second player to score for and against his team in a World Cup game.

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