It’s been quite a year for French striker Antoine Griezmann. Even before heading to Russia for the 2018 World Cup, he’d won the Europa League for Atletico Madrid. His exploits in the 2018 World Cup were even more spectacular as his team won the trophy and he won the Silver in the Adidas Golden Boot award.
Success after Success
2018 is going to go down as the most successful in the career of Antoine Griezmann. The previous year hadn’t been so great and ended with his club side Atletico Madrid dumped out of the Champions League after finishing third in their group behind Chelsea and Roma. A new year arrived though and Griezmann couldn’t have believed just how spectacular it was going to be.
Club football saw Atletico Madrid win the Europa League and the French striker scored on one of the goals in the final, ironically against French side Marseille. More success was to follow in the World cup as he built on the reputation he has for being a man for the big occasion.
France went into the 2018 World Cup as one of the teams most likely to win the tournament. They hadn’t won the World Cup since 1998 but their current squad was packed with players that had plenty of experience and flair and had reached the final of Euro 2016.
They opened their group with a game against Australia, but it proved to be a bit of a struggle getting the win until a penalty was awarded in the second-half. Up stood Griezmann and he tucked away his first goal of the tournament and eventually, France ran out 2-1 winners.
On the Spot
Griezmann failed to score in the remaining two group games as France beat Peru 1-0 and had 0-0 bore-draw with Denmark. With just one goal in three games, he was way behind in the race to win the Adidas Golden Boot award with Harry Kane five goals ahead of him. Even the chance of a silver or bronze looked doubtful with Cristiano Ronaldo, having scored four goals in the group stages.
The knock-out stages of the tournament were to be more fruitful for the French striker, though he regularly needed the referee to point to the penalty spot. That was the case in the last sixteen when he again scored France’s opening goal when they were awarded a penalty against Argentina in the 13th minute.
The quarter-finals saw France face Uruguay and it was in this game that Griezmann scored his only goal from open play. He had to thank the Uruguay goalkeeper for an almighty blunder as he fired in France’s second goal in their 2-0 win.
Griezmann drew a blank in the semi-final but the man for the big occasion again lived up to that name with a goal in the final. Admittingly it was another penalty and one that shouldn’t have been given but it took him to four goals in the tournament – three penalties and a goalkeeping disaster – and with two assists, he took the Silver medal.
A Move Away from Madrid?
Now he returns home a World Cup winner and most likely to negotiate a transfer away from current side Atletico Madrid. Barcelona are the favourites to sign the World Cup winner so the next few weeks should be very interesting indeed for the French striker.
