The 2018 World Cup came to a stunning conclusion on Sunday with France emerging victorious over Croatia 4-2. It was a hotly contested match with both sides going blow for blow in order to finish with the Cup. Now that the dust has settled on what many fanatics have labelled the best World Cup ever, it’s time to review the month-long festival.
That was a really ridiculous World Cup final. After getting extra time and a total of four goals at the last three World Cup finals, the 2018 event was a bit of magic theater. (“Not for everybody.”)
With France ceding 66 percent of possession to Croatia in the World Cup final, it should come as no surprise that the top five players in the match with regards to touches were all Croatian. It perhaps goes some way towards explaining the general belief that Croatia looked better than France for large swaths of the game given the amount of influence that both Luka Modric (89 touches) and Ivan Rakitic (85) had on the game.
If those two are allowed space and time on the ball, Croatia's going to look really, really good.
The Croatia World Cup final vs. France is definitely something historic for the Balkan country.
Not many countries have had the honor of reaching that stage.
This has all the more merit considering how young the country is — Croatia was formed as a nation state in 1991 after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
Yes, we’re doing the third place game. No, I don’t know why.
The 2018 World Cup finishes this Sunday, with the final being contested by Croatia and France. Cue the sad violin music, because no one wants this month-long festival of soccer to come to a conclusion.
But alas, all good things must eventually come to and end. This World Cup has reminded everyone about the joys of the game, and why waiting four years for each World Cup is absolutely worth it.
Dreams have been squandered, tears have been shed and football isn’t coming home, but the heroes will soon. Gareth Southgate and the Three Lions will return home empty-handed but wholehearted.
We’re down to the final two. Well, technically still four because there's the game that everyone is dying to watch: the third place playoff! We’re just kidding, because that'll probably be another 90-minute rerun of the group stage match with both teams shoving out their B teams.
Following Belgium’s 1-0 defeat to France in the semifinals of the World Cup, defeated Red Devils stars Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois immediately began throwing shade at Les Bleus.