France Wins Its 2nd World Cup After Beating Croatia

Washington Hispanic Writing

Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann and France offered an exhibition of physical power and effectiveness.

The combination put the best game of a brave Croatia and decreed on Sunday the 4-2 victory with which France won its second World Cup.
It was an exuberant final in goals, the application of video arbitration and even an invasion of the court before the eyes of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

With very little colorful game on the engram of the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, France won in an austere way. And he showed an implacable punch to take advantage of his chances.

Goals by Mbappé, Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann, plus the own goal of Mario Mandzukic, sealed the triumph of Les Bleus. 

Mbappé and his teammates celebrated by slipping on the wet grass after a torrential downpour that left Putin soaking wet. In the locker room, Pogba put on the ‘dab’ cc a celebration in which the head is lowered to the right elbow and keep the left arm straight. And then they bathed their technician Didier Deschamps with champagne when he broke into his press conference. ” 

“My apologies, they are young and happy,” said Deschamps.
The technician had to consent to his pupils. The majority does not exceed 25 years and everyone should repeat for the title defense in Qatar 2022.

“I have a whole story to write,” said Mbappé. “This is just the beginning.”
At 19, Mbappé became just the second teenager to score a goal in a World Cup final. The other? That was Pele, who was 17 when he signed a double for Brazil in a 5-2 victory against Sweden in the final of 1958.

Pelé congratulated the Paris Saint-Germain striker on his Twitter account: “Welcome to the club, Kylian – fabulous to have company! … If Kylian continues to emulate my records like this I may have to dust off my booties again”, added the myth Brazilian of 78 years.

“We entered history,” said Griezmann, who at the post-match press conference wrapped himself up with a Uruguayan flag handed to him by a reporter. “I still do not believe what happened. The Cup weighs a lot. I am very proud of this team, of the players. “

With Putin among the spectators, the match was interrupted at 52 minutes, when four people stormed the court. Pussy Riot, Russia’s activist and punk music group, claimed responsibility for the incident. The four people entered the court simultaneously, dressed in what looked like old police uniforms, and were shot down by security personnel. 
France was proclaimed champion for the second time after doing it as host 20 years ago, when she beat Brazil with a memorable performance by Zinedine Zidane.

The captain of that selection was the Stoic Deschamps, thrown into the air by his players during the celebration. Deschamps became the third man to win the cup as a player and coach. The previous ones were the Brazilian Mario Zagallo and the German Franz Beckenbauer.

Mandzukic and Ivan Perisic were the authors of the goals of Croatia, the smallest nation in population to contest the final of a World Cup since the consecration of Uruguay in Brazil 1950.

In their first final in the maximum date of football, the Croatians exercised a clear dominion before an adversary who was more calculating and preferred to wait.

France went ahead with Mandzukic’s own goal at 18 after deflecting a free kick from Griezmann, but Perisic tied it ten minutes later with a left-footed shot. 

At 38, Griezmann restored the French lead with a penalty that was signaled after the first use of the VAR in a World Cup final. It was the third penalty converted by the striker in the tournament, Both French annotations were with arbitration interventions. The lack in the first was indicated with excessive rigor by the Argentine referee Néstor Pitana by a harmless contact of Marcelo Brozovic on Griezmann. And then the VAR after a consultation that took 90 seconds, when Perisic went from hero to villain with a hand in the area.

“We made a very good first 20 minutes, we controlled the game,” said Croatian coach Zlatko Dalic. “Then they put this ball goal stopped. We were able to revive and then the criminal. In a World Cup final, that type of penalty is not indicated. But nothing deserves the victory of France. 
After the French keeper Hugo Lloris saved his team by firing a shot from Ante Rebic after the return of the break, Les Bleus gave the final claws through the brilliant definitions of Pogba and Mbappé at 59 and 65, respectively. 
Pogba defined with a left-footed shot after a play by Mbappé and Griezmann. He had to do it in a second attempt, after his first shot bounced in a Croatian defender. The quarter did not take long to arrive, with Mbappé pulling a forehand that caught on goalkeeper Danijel Subasic.
Croatia found the discount at 69 thanks to a blunder by Lloris in a punt attempt, which Mandzukic capitalized on. 

France was able to regulate the rest of the process to be crowned after the distaste of losing the final of 2006 against Italy, defined by penalties and remembered more for the expulsion of Zidane after headbutting Marco Materazzi. 

Orderly, pragmatic and, above all, predatory, France was just the champion with a talented generation of footballers – a team valued at over 1,000 million dollars.

Croatia had come from behind in their three matches in the elimination phase, playing extensions in all and imposing penalties in the first two. But all the creative quality of Modric and Rakitic could with the French power. 

It was the predictable and inevitable result for a World Cup that nevertheless had been characterized all last month by the unexpected fiascos of the great powers like Germany, Argentina and Spain.

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