By Olamilekan FAWAS
The 64th and final match of the Russia World Cup certainly lived up to its billing, as Les Bleus of France defeated Vatreni of Croatia to once more emerge as champions of the world since winning it in 1998.
France’s victory meant Didier Deschamps, who captained Les Bleurs 20 years ago, became just the third man to win the competition as a player and coach, alongside Mario Zagalo of Brazil and Franz Beckenbauer of Germany.
It was a final which had everything needed to make a movie — controversial decisions, a pitch invasion, the first World Cup final own goal, its first teenage goal scorer since Pele, and a comedy goalkeeping error.
The keenly contested match was not only filled with suspense, but it was equally replete with talking points, that would remain contentious in the annals of world football.
Croatia, just like the biblical David; tried to punch above their weight, but they got crushed by Goliath personified by Les Bleus 4-2, to bring their campaign to a shuddering halt in the action packed encounter.
Once France scored through Mario Mandzukic’s unfortunate own goal, Croatia equalised shortly after through Ivan Perisic, and when it looked as if the momentum would swing to the Croats, disaster struck.
The disaster came in the form of the Video Assist Referee (VAR), which spotted a rather controversial “handball’’ offence committed by Perisic, and the centre referee Nestor Pitana was left with no other choice but to award a penalty kick.
After the penalty kick was taken and scored by Antoine Griezmann, Les Bleus did not look back, as they literally took the game by the scruff of the neck and won the match by a whopping score line of 4-2.
Even though the Croats will return home as beaten World Cup finalists, but their approach to the final match would have won the hearts of neutrals and earned them a prolonged standing ovation from their fans at the final whistle.
Zlatko Dalic’s side were the better team for the first hour in spite of trailing, and were pushing France back when they were hit by those two swift sucker punches by Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe.
In terms of possession, even though possession does not win matches — France as the home team had 34% possession, while Croatia had 66%.
France had 7 shots and 6 of those shots were on target, while Croatia had 14 with 4 hitting the target.
Les Bleus had 2 Corner kicks and Vatreni had 6.
In terms of fouls committed the two teams were at par on 13 each.
TBI Africa reports that the just-concluded World Cup which was described by FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, as the best in recent times, was also unique for its remarkable features.
France became the first team to score four goals in a World Cup final since Brazil beat Italy 4-1 in 1970.
Croatia are the first team to lose in their first appearance in a World Cup final since the Netherlands in 1974 (2-1 v Germany).
Mandzukic is the first player to score an own goal in a World Cup final.
Mbappe, 19 years plus, is the second youngest player to score in a World Cup final after Pele for Brazil in 1958 (17 years 249 days).
Griezmann has scored 10 goals for France in major tournaments — only three players have scored more for Les Bleus (Michel Platini – 14, Juste Fontaine – 13, Thierry Henry – 12).
Perisic has been directly involved in 11 goals at major tournaments (7 goals, 4 assists), more than any other Croatia player.
Perisic became only the second player to both score a goal, and concede a penalty in a World Cup final, after Marco Materazzi for Italy in 2006.
Pogba became the first Manchester United player to score in a World Cup final, and the first Premier League player to do so since Emmanuel Petit in 1998.
Pogba’s goal for France was the first scored from outside the box in a World Cup final since Marco Tardelli for Italy v Germany in 1982.
Mandzukic is only the second player in World Cup history to score a goal and an own goal in the same match, after the Netherlands’ Ernie Brandts against Italy in 1978.
Mandzukic became the fifth player to score in both World Cup and European Cup/Champions League finals after Ferenc Puskas, Zoltan Czibor, Gerd Muller and Zinedine Zidane.
Prior to the kick-off of the World Cup, there had been worries about Russia hosting the tournament, with concerns about the potential for racism, hooliganism, and gay fans being at risk of violence.
But the quadrennial FIFA tournament turned out to be one of the best organised in recent times as it appeared to go off smoothly much to the delight of President Vladimir Putin.
“The organisation of the World Cup was solid and the football served was excellent,’’ says Godwin Dudu-Orumen, the Executive Producer of “The Best of Football’’ in an interview in Lagos.
The self-styled “Football Aficionado”, added that he had his reservations about the efficacy of the VAR which, he said, was inconsistent.
“The constant consultation of the VAR viewing screen brought in the error prone human factor, which it sought to eliminate.
“The inconsistent decisions between the VAR team and the centre referee almost took the shine from some of the brilliant matches we watched.
“My friends who were in Russia for the World Cup, told me that the security was tight, and knowing the stance of President Putin, he will not allow any form of opposition that could mar the tournament,” Dudu-Orumen said .
Now that the 2018 World Cup has come and gone, it behooves on the next host, Qatar, to put a show that could surpass what the Russians had done in the last 30 days plus.
Incidentally, some members of the Qatar 2022 Local Organising Committee were on ground to watch how the Russians went about the business of hosting one of the best World Cup tournaments in recent times.
