This is France's second World Cup title. Before this, this mighty power of Europe was made the head of football by defeating Brazil in 1998.
France is
the sixth country, which has won the World Cup title more than once. Earlier,
Brazil (5), Germany (4), Italy (4), Argentina (2) and Uruguay (2) have also
done this before.
France were put ahead in the 18th minute of the match by
an own goal from none other than Mario Mandzukic. He had the dubious honour of
becoming the first man to score an own goal in a World Cup final but he would
get to make amends later in the match. Exactly 10 minutes later, Ivan Perisic
equalised for Croatia after a deft set-piece routine triggered by the
inconquerable Luka Modric. The drama was not to end there. Just over five
minutes before half-time, then referee, with assistance from VAR gave France a
penalty kick due to an apparent handball by Perisic. The validity of that
decision was debatable – replays indicated that Perisic did not move his
hands towards the ball – but Antoine Griezmann was in no doubt as to what he wanted
to do with it. He calmly rolled the ball past Danijel Subasic into the bottom
left-hand corner and France were in the lead at halftime.
The second half started with Croatia all over the French
defence. Deschamps’ men weathered that storm and it was not too long before
they extended their lead.
In the second half, Paul Pogba sent in a thunderous
strike from the edge of the box and extended France’s lead to 3-1. Minutes
later, Kylie Mbappe scored a similar goal, from outside the box to all but seal
the game for France. He became the first teenager to score in a World Cup final
since Pele.
France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris made a blunder towards the
end of the match and Mandžukic tapped it in. The 69th minute goal gave
Croatia some hopes but France held on to their two-goal lead to end as the
winners.
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