World Cup 2018 FINAL: France brings the trophy home! Well deserved ! Goal glut!

France World Cup Russia 2018 Winners! (Picture taken from RadioSport)

Honestly WE were sure France was going to win! We even ALMOST guessed the final result !! We bet 3-2 but as you know the match finished 4-2 for the French! The match started all in favour of Croatia who was putting a lot of pressure on their opponents which seemed in difficulty and looked liked they could get the best out of the match with Perisic and Mandzukic playing at their best but as often happens in soccer France got the lead surprisingly at 18' thanks to a very unfortunate own goal by Mario Mandzukic who jumped more than anyone else trying to clear the ball which was sent in his own net instead! 1-0. Croatia didn't lose courage nor hope and kept pushing with Vrsaljko and Rebic as well. They got the equaliser at 28' thanks to a nice action on the right with the ball finishing on Vida - in the middle of the box - who intelligently gave a good assist to Perisic who shot after pasting a defender. No chance for Lloris and 1-1! The Italian Serie A players were definitely the first half protagonists in the good and in the bad. After the glory moments Perisic made a small and probably accidental ingenuity touching the ball with his hand over a cross from the right in his penalty box. The Referee got called by the VAR and after checking it he gave the penalty kick to France. Griezmann was perfect as always. 2-1 at 38'! This was also the first half result. A very entertaining match! The second half was even better in terms of goals. At 59' Griezmann - in the Croatia box - passed the ball back for a Pogba shoot. His first attempt was stopped by a defender but not the second one which went directly into the net with Subasic still like a statue. 3-1! France was flying high and you could tell when you were seeing the Blue shirts going all over especially a very inspired Mbappe. It's indeed the Youngest player who scored in a World Cup to put another signature on the competition. His great strike from outside the box went straight down the legs of Vida who probably tricked Subasic. The goalkeeper probably didn't even see that a shot was about to be fired and it was the 4-1 at 65'. Everyone thought the match was already gone but it's incredible how soccer is. At 68' Lloris tried a dribbling on Mandzukic during a simple defensive action but unbelievably the keeper let Mario anticipating his attempt and scored the 4-2. Goofy move by Lloris! Unfortunately for Croatia the French got back on focus again very quickly and they managed pretty well to defend the goal till the end. A very well deserved World Cup for France and Deschamps! A great achievement for Croatia anyway but they were probably too tired  because of the many Extra-Time matches they played till this point. Modric won the Best Player of the Tournament prize while Mbappe won the Young Player one.

It was a pleasure for us to follow our first World Cup with Actually Soccer and we hope to follow many more in the future! Thanks for reading us!