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With 62 games left and two games to go, the World Cup has reached its peak. France and Croatia will face off in the final Sunday, a day after Belgium and England have contested a playoff spot for third place. The weekend games are the culmination of a month-long football festival that has captivated fans around the world with last-minute dramas, surprises in numbers, the novelty of the day. Video arbitration and a single 0-0 draw. The host Russia had a publicity stunt, not to mention an unexpected and thrilling race from the local team, as hundreds of thousands of foreign fans crowded the streets during colorful celebrations.
Who will win?
Bookmakers rank France as the favorite for the final at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, which starts at 18h local time. The French are looking for a second world title, Croatia a first. France has never lost to Croatia, winning three times (including its 1998 semi-final) and drawing its last two games in 2004 and 2011. But the World Cup was surprising. the quarter-finals.
2. Can outsiders do it?
They would need to overcome formidable opposition. In addition to having pace and strength in the attack, played by striker Kylian Mbappe, the French are able to deny the opponents' space and chances of goal. Coach team Didier Deschamps stopped four teams, scoring a record, including a 1-0 semifinal win that ended Belgium's unbeaten run in 24 games. Croatia has shown great resilience, surviving on penalties against Denmark and Russia, overcoming a 1-0 deficit to defeat England 2-1 in overtime. Team coach Zlatko Dalic prides himself on being among the favorites of the tournament, including striker Ivan Perisic, midfielder Luka Modric and goalkeeper Danijel Subasic. Croatia has not bowed against England, quite the contrary, but will it feel the tension having played the equivalent of a match more than France?
3. What is at stake?
For France, it's a chance to catch up with the traditional powers of European football. Since the French won their only World Cup in 1998, Germany and Italy have both added their fourth title. While it will be France's third final in 20 years, Croatia has never been this far. The country of Eastern Europe, which counts 4.1 million inhabitants, aims to become the smallest nation to win the World Cup outside of Uruguay, highlighting its ability to beat his weight in football – he finished third in 1998 – and other sports. The last time France reached the final in 2006, Zinedine Zidane was badped for a whim before Italy won a shootout. In 1998, Zidane used his head to score better and score two goals in a final 3-0 win over Brazil. A victory for Croatia would be the ninth nation to be crowned world champion. The most recent winners were Spain in 2010 – and France in 1998. Then, Deschamps hoisted the trophy as captain at the Stade de France in Paris. Now, he is looking to join the German Franz Beckenbauer and the Brazilian Mario Zagallo as the only winner of the first prize of football as a player and coach.
4. What about third place?
Defeated semifinalists can finish on a positive note when they meet in St. Petersburg on Saturday at 17:00 local time. Belgium has already beaten England 1-0 at this tournament in an unusual group match that saw most first-clbad players rest because both teams were already qualified. Belgium, top scorer of the tournament, can do better than its fourth place at the 1986 World Cup, when France won the playoffs 4-2. For England, which lost its only third place 2-1 to host Italy in 1990, it is an opportunity to record its second best performance in the world. history of the tournament after his victory at the World Cup in 1966.
5. Who will win the Golden Boot?
England striker Harry Kane is the tournament's top scorer with six goals. Belgian Romelu Lukaku, with four goals, has an outside chance to catch him. For France, Antoine Griezmann and Mbappe lead with three goals. The Portuguese Ronaldo and the Russian Denis Cheryshev also scored four goals to share the second place with Lukaku.
6. What was different at this World Cup?
Arbitrators make large rectangular shapes with their fingers, then replay controversial moments on a television screen. FIFA, the governing body of football, has introduced "video badistant referees", or VARs, to help judge goals, penalty decisions and more. Four examiners are watching the action from a play in Moscow, and they have been busy. The receipt of VAR has been largely (if not totally) positive, with most critics not coming from the current system but from flawed interpretations of referees or the failure of VAR deployment. The concern to slow down the games has been revealed largely unfounded.
7. Another different thing?
The absence of 0-0 – just a single one up here (Denmark vs France). Thanks in good measure to VAR, Russia 2018 has been high on penalties (a record 28) and low on red cards (four) and offside. The 11 goals conceded broke the record of six in France in 1998. Senegal became the first team to be eliminated due to a bad "fair play", losing to Japan because it had accumulated no more yellow cards. There was also the first ever Icelandic Viking Fans World Cup in their tournament debut, as Panamanian fans wildly celebrated their World Cup team's first goal in a 6-1 defeat at the tournament. England as if they had won the match. Another novelty: England finally won a penalty shootout in World Cup on the fourth attempt.
8. How are the banks and the psychic animals derived from them?
Some forecasters are learning the hard way that fair play can not be reduced to mere statistics and data modeling. Commerzbank AG and UBS Group AG chose Germany, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chose Brazil. However, Nomura Holdings Inc. opted for France, as did EA Sports, the official video game company that correctly predicted the last two winners by simulating tournaments. After the prescience of Paul the Octopus at the 2010 World Cup, Russia promoted a deaf cat called Achilles as a tournament oracle. However, the psychic powers of the feline were eclipsed by Rabio, an octopus who correctly named the first three results of Japan. Alas, Rabio was killed and sold as seafood before the next match: a 3-2 loss to Belgium after Japan led 2-0. The Russian central bank noted the similarity between an image on its special World Cup ticket and the decisive shooting stop of Russian shooter against Spain. "Forecasting has always been our strong point," said the Bank of Russia. While French President Emmanuel Macron will be in the stadium for the final, as he was for the semifinal, there will be no English officials on the sidelines after Saturday's Premier British minister Theresa May ruled out the presence of British and royal politicians. His decision followed the poisoning on British soil of a former Russian spy and his daughter and, according to Thomas Penny of Bloomberg, looks like a personal political goal. On the other hand, the death of a British citizen the same poison this week would have made participation may be controversial. A group of absent from the tournament: Russian football hooligans, known as "ultras".
10. The 2010 vote of FIFA's executive committee awarding Russia this year's tournament is still under criminal investigation by French, Swiss and US prosecutors, with lingering accusations that the vote was rigged. The memories of the doping scandal that occurred after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and which resulted in the ban of the Russian Winter Games team from this year are still very present. (Vitaly Mutko, former sports minister banned from the Olympics, was part of the FIFA committee that selected Russia and led the organizing committee until his resignation in December.) Due to the 2013 law banning homobaduality football fans were warned not to hold hands or otherwise manifest their affection.
11. What about Russia?
Vladimir Putin's government spent 683 billion rubles ($ 11 billion) for preparations, largely on new stadiums and transport infrastructure. Beyond that, the economic impact will be "very limited" as most of the 12 stadiums are in regions – like Ekaterinburg in the Urals – that should not attract tourists, said Moody & # 39th Investors Service before the tournament. Putin has used the Sochi Olympics to reinforce his public image, but his approval ratings are so high that the World Cup should not affect his position at home. Although the success of a tournament probably does not influence its critics abroad, many fans have noticed that Russia was kinder and more welcoming than what it was waiting for
• See goals and more on the FIFA YouTube page. • How the British protest fizzled
• The city of the Franco-German World Cup
• A QuickTake on the corruption of the World Cup
• The author-journalist Ken Bensinger asks: Has Russia stolen the World Cup? -With the help of Stephanie Baker and Jake Rudnitsky
To contact the reporters on this story: Grant Clark in Singapore at [email protected], Tony Halpin in Moscow at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Leah Harrison Singer at [email protected], Laurence Arnold, Tony Halpin
© 2018 Bloomberg LP
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