French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris has the ball stolen off him by Mandzukic and it’s suddenly 4-2 with 21 minutes remaining. Can Croatia stage a late comeback?
Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPAThe mistake from Lloris that allowed Mario Mandzukic to pull a goal back for Croatia did not matter greatly in the end and France are deserving champions bearing in mind their assured performances throughout the tournament. Any team that score four times in a final are entitled to feel they have won in style and nobody seemed to mind too much, in the long wait for the trophy presentation, that the only person being sheltered from the rain was Vladimir Putin. Kudos to the chap in the suit who suddenly appeared with an umbrella to keep the president dry while Gianni Infantino and the other assorted Fifa dignitaries took a soaking.
This was the highest-scoring final since 1966 and it was laced with drama and incident, not least a second-half pitch invasion apparently from members of Pussy Riot, and featuring a fair amount of controversy, too, bearing in mind that France’s second goal, a penalty scored by Antoine Griezmann, came from a borderline VAR decision that will always polarise opinion.
Even before that point it was difficult not to sympathise with Croatia given they had suffered the grievous setback of an own goal from Mandzukic. Zlatko Dalic, the Croatia manager, had promised that, if necessary, his team would take defeat with dignity and at least his players did not veer from that line, in trying circumstances. They will leave Russia, however, feeling that key moments of luck went against them, right down to the smaller details. Marcelo Brozovic’s alleged foul on Griezmann for the free-kick that led to Mandzukic’s own goal was a case in point: a generous decision, to say the least.
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