World Cup in Russia | And the Grand Finale

 At the end of a month long journey involving 32 national teams playing 64 matches we have one champion and that is France. No first time winner, no surprise but France.  Along with Uruguay, Argentina it became the third country to win the cup twice; Brazil, Germany and Italy have won it many times over.

France made through the tougher half of the draw. On to the way they beat some of the heavy weight names in world football in the knockout stages; Argentina, Uruguay, Belgium. They beat Argentina, Uruguay convincingly and escaped a talented but reluctant to win Belgium. Never did their knockout stage matches went to extra time; which is actually the first a champion team has achieved so.

Croatia had on the other side managed to win all their knockout games in the extra time; twice even on penalties. All the games were won after being initially down by a goal. They were a battle hardened unit, relentless in their pursuit of victory. On the way they bettered Denmark, Russia and England.
The final started with a lot of promise and it did live up to the expectation. The first goal scored was an own goal which found the Croatian net from a Griezmann free-kick. This tournament had a record number of own goals conceded and was the first time an own goal happened in the finals.
The decision for the free-kick was contentious but Croatia true to their abilities cancelled the deficit. However France went up again by virtue of a penalty. Decision for the penalty was again not clean enough. The referee initially rejected any hand ball but then VAR came into picture. Referee had a re look and granted the penalty.

In this entire tournament VAR had played an important role and at crucial time; it did so in the final as well. However VAR has been inconsistent too. There are instances earlier in the tournament when  penalty was not granted for similar handball situations.

By half time France lead 2-1 and everyone was set for an exciting second half. However early in the second half  France simply took away the game from Croatia by scoring two quick goals; both by long range ground shots from just outside the box by Pogba and Mbappe. Both the shots, specially the second one, were within the reach of Croatian goalkeeper Subasic but somehow he missed the trajectory for both.

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Mbappe became the first teen ager since Pele to score in the finals of WC. Mbappe troubled defenders all through the tournament with his speed and quite appropriately earned the Best Young Player of the tournament award.

With 4-1 down there were little hopes for Croatia to make a turnaround but they didn't loose hope. They kept their pressure and earned a goal by virtue of some reckless mistake by the French goalkeeper Lloris. It is irresponsible to attempt to such a stunt in the WC final but no one would much care or talk about it since France had a 3 goal cushion and were comfortably placed to win their second world cup.

This was definitely the most exciting FIFA world cup final witnessed since 2002. The final had own goal, VAR and goalkeeping blunders; all three of which have been hallmarks of this month long tournament.

It is quite an achievement for France which as a country has been torn apart on issues if immigration and religion. The French team has more than 70% of the players having an immigrant origin. And coach Deschamps is mostly credited with stitching this team together. They had lost the Euro 2016 final to Portugal but succeeded this time.

Didier Deschamps became the third after Zagallo and Beckenbauer to win the cup as player and coach;  Beckenbauer and Deschamps were captains as well. Deschamps was also the captain of Olympique de Marseille which in 1993 was the first and only French club to win UEFA Champions League. He also captained the team which won Euro in 2000. Quite an illustrious career.

Griezmann ultimately won a major and obviously the most important final after having tasted defeat in UCL and Euro finals.

Croatia also achieved their best finish since 1998 when they lost to France again in the semifinals and went on to secure the third position. They should be definitely proud of what they achieved and the beautiful football they played. Starting the tournament no one gave them an outside chance of reaching the finals but they did in style. The have a wonderful generation of footballers And Luka Modric appropriately won the Golden Ball ahead of Eden Hazard and Greizmann.

In the third place playoff Belgium defeated England to secure the third position.

The one month extravaganza ended but initiated a long night of celebration in Paris. For the players it is a once in a lifetime achievement; a moment to cherish. The excitement is well visible from the celebration ushered by the French President in the VIP enclave.

In Croatia as well the players received a hero welcome upon reaching. Their President was also present during the finals and was visibly emotional after the defeat. It is learnt from internet sources that she was present in all the matches Croatia played, traveled economy to Russia and even didn't take salary for the days she was absent from duty. Incredible story.

The wait begins for Qatar 2022; first time the tournament to be held in the winter.

The images used in this post are sourced from internet.