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France wins the 2018 World Cup, defeating Croatia 4-2. France had the second youngest team in World Cup play but displayed a huge amount of maturity during the entire tournament.
France got on the board first taking a 1-0 lead when a corner kick ricocheted off Mario Mandzukic’s head into his own goal in the 18th-minute. Croatia would answer in the 28th minute on Ivan Perisic’s booming left foot shot.
With the game tied at 1-1 in the 34th-minute an apparent handball by Perisic had the French players screaming at the refs. The Officials went to the VAR (video assisted referee ) booth an awarded a penalty kick to France.
It was the first time in World Cup Finals History that the system was used to award penalty kick. Antoine Griezmann beat Croatian keeper Danijel Subasic in the bottom left corner of the net to give France the lead 2-1 at the halftime mark.
After halftime, Paul Pogba scored in the 59th-minute and Kylian Mbappe scored in the 65th. Mbappe becomes the first teenager to score in a World Cup Finals since the great Pele in 1958. Mandzukic would score (on the opposing goal this time) in the 69th-minute but that’s all Croatia could muster.
France becomes the sixth nation to win multiple World Cup titles. The last time the France won the world Cup was 1998. French Manager Didier Deschamps was the captain of that team and now he wins the Cup as manager as well.
World Cup Notes
– Croatia’s Luka Modric wins Golden Ball Award (player of the tournament)
– England’s Henry Kane wins Golden Boot Award (top scorer)
