Today the news around the world shows that France are the World Cup champions so across their nation the celebrations continue after the outstanding achievement of their team. The losing opponents can often get quickly forgotten about but when a final is as exciting as the 4-2 thriller we were treated to yesterday, the opposing team still deserve huge plaudits for their contribution.
The story could have been very different, had the referee not awarded France a dubious penalty in the first half. Up until that point, Croatia had looked a real threat and were looking the better team in the opening period. However, France managed to score four goals, whilst Croatia replied with two, making it one of the highest scoring World Cup finals ever.
Previous high-scoring World Cup finals:
1938 Italy 4 – 2 Hungary
1958 Brazil 5 – 2 Sweden
1966 England 4 – 2 West Germany
The last two World Cup finals were marginal 1 – 0 wins, so this feast of goals made it the most exciting final for decades. The last time a team had scored three goals in a final was back in 1998 as France beat Brazil 3-0, when they won the trophy for the first time.
Most exciting World Cup ever?
What a finale for a tournament that has entertained from start to finish. The opening game was expected to be dull but hosts Russia hammered Saudi Arabia 5 – 0 to start the tournament off in a very exciting manner. It took 12 days of football before we had a 0–0 in a game, as VAR helped by enabling referees to decide whether a penalty should be awarded.
Football pundits are claiming that this has been the best, most exhilarating World Cup tournament in memory and the final certainly did not disappoint. Only another four years to wait for the next one!
