Football fans saw the last of the 2018 World Cup as France beat Croatia 4-2 to win the Russian edition on Sunday evening. The match itself may have fallen short of the spark expected of it considering the electrifying semi final games but every second of the festival was worth it.
Goals from Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbape plus a Mario Mandzukic own goal sorted it for the French. A Perisic stunner and another goal from Mandzukic provided consolation goals for the Croats.
Luka Modric was very outstanding through out the tournament so it came as no surprise that he won the Golden Ball award. Teenage sensation Kylian Mbape won the Young Player Award while Belgian Thibuat Courtois won the Golden Glove Award.
Worthy of note is the fact that exactly twenty years after Didier Descahmps captained the French team to a world cup victory on home soil, he did it again this time as the Manager. Thus becoming the third person to win the World Cup as player and manager after Mario Zagallo for Brazil and Franz Beckenbauer for Germany.
The tournament witnessed upsets as Germany, Spain, Argentina and Brazil who came as favourites were eliminated unceremoniously. With Belgium having won the the Bronze spot the previous day, the games came to a beautiful conclusion.
As usual, African teams performed woefully. Again. Story for another day.
The World Cup has ended but the memories will forever live in the hearts of fans across the globe. One can say that Gianni Infantino's first major outing as FIFA Supremo was a beauty. The general organisation of the games is a wonderful view into the future of football.
Photo Credit: fifa.com
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Wow! What a wonderful synopsis of the 2018 World Cup, the global tournament that united the entire world and captured our hearts for four beautiful weeks, heartbreaking losses notwithstanding. It provided a thrill the world longed for, and one we are already anticipating come 2022.
ReplyDeleteThe French manager has gained a pass into a truly elite group, no easy feat. Kudos to Infantino as well; although some might rightfully argue that certain aspects could have gone better, he deserves some accolades for overseeing an event of such a massive scale with all it entails. Let's hope that Nigeria has a better outing next time, starting from qualifying in the first place. Thanks for this beautiful and concise piece.
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