France v Croatia 14 July 2018

Of those players involved in the final, French forwards Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe have both scored three times during the tournament, while Croatia have three players on two goals.

Even though they were beaten 4-2 the Croatia football fans turned out en masse in Zagreb.

No shots on target. In fact, neither finalist has lost a single game in the World Cup.

“They know what is at stake, but if they are unable to give their all they will tell us”.

But new Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri, who replaced Antonio Conte this week, will still hope Giroud has saved his supply of goals for the start of the new Premier League season, which begins in 26 days.

After the interval, France increased their lead through Paul Pogba, whose performances in the tournament deserved a goal in its finale.

As he has done throughout this tournament, Pogba played with great tactical discipline in a largely defensive role but still managed to pop up with the crucial goal to make it 3-1 in the final.

The game featured the first final own goal and the first VAR-decided spot-kick – one Croatia were furious about and which was arguably the turning-point of the game.

It was nearly as much of a breeze as the 1998 final for Les Bleus, ultimately. The last player to score a goal in the regular 90 minutes of a World Cup Final was Marco Materazzi, for Italy against France in 2006.

The game will be remembered as the highest-scoring World Cup final since England’s win over West Germany in 1966, and for Mbappe becoming the youngest player to score in the final since Pele in 1958. About 12 minutes after play resumed, Mbappe sent a right-footed shot past Croatia goalkeeper Danijel Subasic.

With the final whistle France claimed the 2018 World Cup with a devastated Croatia left scratching their head. France won against Croatia beating the team by 4-2 in a dramatic final.

A month after the World Cup group stage kicked off with a blowout win by Russian Federation, only two teams are left standing. Since 1998, Croatia has never placed past the group stage.

Quite how much those three extra-time wins have taken out of Croatia will be seen on the deciding day, but the relatively small Balkan state won’t lack for passion as they play their first major final ever and attempt to become the second smallest nation to win the WC after Uruguay.

Croatia’s Mandzukic then scored, bringing the score to 4-2, thanks to an error from France.