France win 4-2 thriller against Croatia to lift World Cup after 20 years

Croatia vs France final full-time report: It rained in Moscow today. First it was the goals, then the tears, and then the clouds opened and let down the rain, beneath it were a jumping, joyous bunch of Frenchmen who had just won the Fifa World Cup, their second in history. They danced and ran around the ground, waving the French flag. Not that they needed any help but the loudspeakers at the Luzhniki Stadium were on full blast, the tune -- Hans Zimmer's theme for Pirates of the Caribbean. There was another bunch, who were staring into the oblivion. The men in chequered jerseys -- the reds and whites. The Hans Zimmer music, the roaring fans, the drizzling, none of that mattered. Just like that, Croatia's captain Luka Modric had tears in his eyes.

You need a little bit of luck to win the World Cup. France had that in a good measure in Moscow on Sunday as they beat Croatia 4-2 to win their second-ever World Cup trophy. In a match otherwise evenly poised, it was an own-goal by Mario Mandzukic and a penalty that gave France an upper hand who sealed the match with two wonderful second-half strikes by Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe. Ivan Perisic and Mandzukic scored for Croatia, but that proved to be insufficient in a high-scoring match, where the number of goals was highest since 1966, when England won 4-2 after extra time. France maybe deserve this title, but Croatia will also be well within their rights to complain that the luck was hard on them. Read complete article