2018 World Cup Final: Live Updates from France to Croatia

37: It's a penalty!

Great luck for France! Pitana took a looooong look and saw what we all saw: a handball. And he decided that it was a penalty. This will be a big topic of discussion, since it was as if it could have gone one way or the other. But V.A.R. was designed for just that kind of moment. It goes without saying that it is the first test in the final of the World Cup. But will he DECIDE a World Cup final?

36: V.A.R.

Great moment: on the replay, it looks like a handball. But he hit it, and he was in a natural position. But we'll see …..

34: Corner for France … Handball?

Antoine Griezmann's corner reaches Matuidi in the area, and his head pbades next to the post. The French claim a handball on Perisic, and it's a very big test for V.A.R.

32: Kante must be careful

Kanté's yellow is even bigger now that Croatia is same, from elsewhere. They can run on him, challenge him, and hope that Pitana sees something that crosses the line and sends him. It would be a nightmare for France; He is truly their most indispensable player.

29: Great open play

The goal really drives things as France hoped to slow them down. And now there is a spring in the Croatian march.

28 "SCORES OF CROATIA!

Ivan Perisic gets the last shot after a series of headers that offers him a free kick from Modric in the box. The shot, on a nice shift left, struck Varane at the hip and deviated a little further from the reach of Lloris

27: Yellow for Kante

Yellow card for Kanté, who mark the heel of Perisic as he breaks the middle, dangerously. It is better to keep an eye on this; The game of Kante sometimes implies – prosperous – faults like that. But now he can not do it.

22 & # 39 ;: Here is the rain

It just started raining here after the goal, but life is definitely out of the Croatian crowd.

Victor Mather: Alert of statistical curiosity. France has a goal, but still no official shot. Because Griezmann's blast was diverted for a purpose against his side, he does not receive credit for a shot.

21: Croatia Free Kick Handled

Croatia receives a similar opportunity with a free kick on the other end Lloris collects for a goal kick

It is remarkable, really, that seen the quantity of talent that they have, #FRA was set up to play on the counter. It works for them, so it's okay, but it's so counter-intuitive that it's almost perverse.

–
Rory Smith (@RorySmith)
July 15, 2018

18: GOAL! France leads …

A foul gave Griezmann a free kick about 30 yards to the left, and he fired a ball that Mandukic headed on Subasic in his own net.

It's still a risk there, but is a disaster for Croatia, which has done everything right. And as we noted, they failed to make it a goal. And now, they are in a hole, maybe unfairly, and France can do what France has done: just tighten up, and do not make mistakes. Terzble luck for Mandzukic, however, who did his job and involuntarily put him in the net.

First goal against his own camp in a final #WorldCup .
– 12th goal of the tournament.
-71st goal of the match at the tournament (out of 164 goals) pic.twitter.com/l9dbSNnwVu
@TelemundoSports

–
The18 (@ the18com)
15 July 2018

15: Croatia needs to convert

Croatia will really want to transform all this possession by sounding something soon; If France fights through these first 15 or 20 minutes without paying a price by giving up a goal, it will probably find its marks. And Croatia can come to regret it.

Victor Mather: Something is missing from this game? How about a shot? There has been zero so far. No shooting on the net … zero shot of any type with 15 minutes of play.

14: Putin in the House

Vladimir Putin is here today for the final . It's only the second time that he's running for a match at this World Cup. The first was the first opener.

12: France on his heels

A dozen minutes and Mbappé's only contact was in defense. Griezmann may not have touched it at all.

10: Croatia controls this game until now

Modric, using the outside of his right foot, opens the French with a beautiful cross-field ball at Strinic, but Umtiti clears his cross. It's a nice moment for Croatia in the first 10 minutes of play.

Victor Mather: The defense of France has already been forced seven times. Croatia has just one game.

8: Corner for Croatia

Strinic and Rakitic make a nice play there in the left corner, and Pogba has to come in to cut the first when he gets the ball in the area. Corner in Croatia

Grioud wins in front of Lloris, and the French try to go out

6 "Croatia is leading the attendance and the volume

The atmosphere here is much better for a few we had in the semifinals. This is largely due to the Croats, who took several sections behind their goal and who, sometimes, simply jog. The French contingent much smaller on the other end has not yet had a lot of courage.

5: Croatia continues to attack

Vrsaljko escapes for a moment at the bottom of the right wing and shoots in a cross, but again France is there to erase. Solving Varane and Umtiti will take better balls than this one, but it's a good thing for Croatia early

Victor Mather: Let's say this about Croatia: The team do not be afraid to shoot. Entering this game, he has 100 hits, third in the Cup behind Belgium (who played one more game) and Brazil. But the accuracy was not sensational: only 26 of these shots were on target, far behind Belgium and Brazil.

3: Varane the extinct

Perisic sounding the left is the first true test for France, but Varane, if smooth, slips and closes everything:

1 & # 39; : Kickoff!

This ball out of bounds near the first minute was the first French touch of the day. It will go for Croatia.

Hymns

Kylian Mbappé was absolutely beaming during the French anthem. One day when it would be understandable to be as tense as a 19 year old, the joy on his face was wonderful. I wonder if that suggests a big day ahead of him. "I want to win the World Cup," he said this week. "I want to sleep with that."

Final of the World Cup: the man in charge

The referee of today is the Argentine Nestor Pitana, a veteran with smooth hair and a the look of a colonel of the Argentine army. It does not generally tolerate fools, but definitely wants to stay out of action today.

The video badistant referee is an Italian, Mbadimiliano Irrati. The teams leave the tunnel. Almost the hour. The following hymns …

Bring the checkers!

Good news: France will be in blue today, allowing Croatia to wear its fantastic checkered jerseys for the first time since the group stage.

France vs Croatia: chances

The tipsters clearly favor France in this match. France is considered a 45% chance of winning the match by regulation, Croatia being only 23% (the other 32% of the time will go into overtime). With regard to the final winner, it is 65-35 for France

The over / under, as it is the case for many international football matches, is 2. At 5-1, Antoine Griezmann de France is the favorite to score the first goal. Two other Frenchmen follow him, Mbappé and Giroud.

Starting Composition of France

No change in the France team, which is not a surprise. Didier Deschamps remained more or less with the same starting lineup throughout the tournament. Expect them to line up in the same 4-2-3-1, with Giroud at the front as the end of the spear and Griezmann, Mbappé and Matuidi buzzing around him.

Goalkeeper: 1 Hugo Lloris (Tottenham)

] Defenders: 21 Lucas Hernandez (Atletico Madrid), 2 Benjamin Pavard (Stuttgart), 5 Samuel Umtiti (Barcelona), 4 Raphael Varane (Real Madrid)

Midfielders: 13 N & # 39; Golo Kante (Chelsea), 14 Blaise Matuidi (Juventus), 6 Paul Pogba (Manchester United)

Forward: 9 Olivier Giroud (Chelsea), 7 Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid ), 10 Kylian Mbappé (Paris St. Germain)

Starting Composition of Croatia

Croatia is holding on to familiar faces. Brozovic did a lot of support work against England to allow Rakitic and Modric to work freely. Perisic and Rebic will have to be active again on the wings, to try to spread the French and create holes. Many have tried, however;

Goalkeeper: 23 Danijel Subasic (Monaco)

Defenders: 21 Domagoj Vida (Besiktas), 3 Ivan Strinic (Milan), 6 Dejan Lovren (Liverpool), 2 Sime Vrsaljko (Atletico Madrid)

Midfielder : 10 Luka Modric (Real Madrid), 7 Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona), 11 Marcelo Brozovic (Inter Milan)

Forward: 4 Ivan Perisic (Inter Milan), 18 Ante Rebic (Fiorentina)

Mario Mandzukic (Juventus)

Striker Nikola Kalinic of AC Milan is the only one who will certainly not play today. he is registered as absent on the team sheet of Croatia

France will not underestimate Croatia

Kylian Mbappé, 19, drew all the good marks of caution on Croatia Friday.

"Even when you think they're losing or crunching, they still have the mentality of coming back," he said. "It's a team that plays with a lot of people." 39. Intensity. "

Croatia finalist surprise

Croatia, a nation of 4.5 million people who gained independence in 1991, would not be the smallest country to win the World Cup. world title remains Uruguay, probably in the foreseeable future.) But that would probably be the biggest shock of the history of the World Cup.Although Uruguay, winner in 1930 and 1950, could claim to be the the best team in the world in case of victory, but there was not even what was considered a surprise finalist from Czechoslovakia in 1962.

Mbappé has his priorities in order

The Frenchman Kylian Mbappé won the Golden Ball as the best player in the world. "I do not care about that," he says. "I want the World Cup, I want to sleep with that."

Who is Zlatko Dalic?

It is safe to badume that few football fans in the world could have chosen Croatian manager Zlatko Dalic before the tournament. Although he had a long professional career as a defensive midfielder, mainly with Croatian clubs Varteks and Hadjuk Split, his coaching career is nothing remarkable. His three previous posts before taking Croatia were with two Saudi clubs and another in the United Arab Emirates.

But when Croatia fired the coach who had led most of the qualifications, Ante Cacic, after a series of poor results The team's chances of qualifying for Russia, Dalic was charged to lead the team on the line. He guided him with a light touch here, making some compositional changes and acknowledging that he deferred to his players. (Asked why he did not participate in the 90-minute run against England in a grueling semifinal, despite the fact that his players were out consecutively, Dalic admitted, "I wanted to replace, but no one wanted to be subbed. "Another chance for France

This is France's second big consecutive final.He reached the finals of the European home league in 2016, but has lost to Portugal on a goal late in extra time, 1-0, some people point out this defeat – a bitter disappointment after their methodical move from the field to the final – as the danger of conservative instincts of the director Didier Deschamps. falls down today as a favorite, expect him to have the first fingers pointed.

France vs Croatia: a friendly rivalry

Do not be surprised if there are a lot of cuddles and hugs greetings am icales in the tunnel Before the match: Antoine Griezmann and Sime Vrsaljko are the teammates of Atlético Madrid, just like Raphael Varane, Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic at Real Madrid. Mario Mandzukic and Blaise Matuidi play together at Juventus (where Paul Pogba was employed before joining Manchester United), and Croatian goalkeeper Daniel Subasic and Frenchman Djibril Sidibe are in Monaco, where until the end of the season. last year they attended the rise of Kylian Mbappé. Additional game for Croatia

With three more victories in the round of 16, Croatia has actually played one more match than France here.

Hugo Lloris is not going to wander

There may be no better example of the security mentality before the game of goaltender Hugo Lloris. A skillful wandering player with his feet for his club, Tottenham Hotspur, he is under orders not to roam for France. He was credited with just 11 saves in six games, but many of them were memorable game changers – against Belgian Toby Alderweireld in the semifinals, against Uruguayan Martin Caceres in the quarterfinals – says a lot about the success of the strategy. 19659096] Graphic

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