World Cup final: How football world reacted to France’s win over Croatia
Written by News on 16/07/2018
France were crowned World Cup champions for the second time after beating Croatia in a game that had goals, drama and controversy.
There was the first-ever use of VAR in a World Cup final – with the outcome splitting opinions – as well as a terrible goalkeeping error and a teenager making history.
Here’s how the match unfolded with the views of players, former players and journalists on social media…
France 4-2 Croatia
As it happened
First half – Mario woe, VAR drama
Just 18 minutes into the match in Moscow, the deadlock was broken when Croatia striker Mario Mandzukic headed into his own net from a free-kick.
But replays of the incident showed that Antoine Griezmann dived to win the free-kick for France…
Croatia had largely been the better side and levelled when Ivan Perisic finished expertly from just inside the box…
But then came the big talking point of the match.
A France corner from the right went into the near post, was flicked on and hit Perisic on his arm. Referee Nestor Pitana did not initially give a penalty but decided to check VAR. After watching the incident several times, the referee walked away from the screen, then walked back to check again, and then pointed to the spot.
The decision was largely met with frustration by current and former players.
Although there were some contrasting views…
And here’s how the guests on The Football Social, including Wycombe striker Adebayo Akinfenwa, reacted to the decision…
Second half – Mbappe strikes, Lloris blunders, France triumph
Croatia continued to dominate after half-time, with Perisic impressing and France making the surprising move of taking off N’Golo Kante with less than hour gone…
But then France came alive.
First Paul Pogba started and finished a move to make it 3-1…
Then Kylian Mbappe drilled in from 25 yards out to become only the second teenager to score in a World Cup final. And he got a ‘welcome to the club’ by the only other player to do so…
Hugo Lloris handed Croatia a lifeline when he tried to take the ball around Mandzukic and the striker read the move and poked the ball into the net…
However, despite pushing in the final 20 minutes, Croatia could not get back into the match and France were crowned World Cup champions for the second time.
(c) Sky News 2018: World Cup final: How football world reacted to France’s win over Croatia
