Beautiful dreamers tee up final for the ages

France and Croatia will play for much more than a trophy to cap remarkable journey

MOSCOW—“We should show life neither as it is or as it ought to be, but only as we see it in our dreams.”

Leo Tolstoy’s house sits perfectly preserved just one stop from Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow’s Khamovniki district, encircled by linden trees and assorted greenery. An oasis from the madness, you’d hope it’s been busy these past few weeks as the world descended upon the city.

It really has been a hell of a month for the dreamers here in Russia. A World Cup that has rolled from one reverie to the next at a relentless clip has wrapped the blow-ins and the locals up and around it in a haze of blurringly brilliant soccer, mind-bending twists of fate and faith too, names and games decided and then undecided as a new narrative interjected without invitation.

There’ve been nightmares too. Champions and icons humbled in a fashion that ought never to be and yet was, Germany and Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar discovering that in the Russian dream summer of 2018, precedent, presumptions and predictions count for little.

Alas, this all has to come to an end because there’s only so much dreaming that’s good for you. Reality will bite hard at Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday night for one European country. For another the dream will be seen like never before. Croatia and France both want this all to continue. But it can’t.

“Our dream is so close now,” said Croatia’s semifinal hero Ivan Perisic in the wake of his side’s victory over England. “This is something indescribable.”

“It is unbelievable,” said France’s teenage dream come true Kylian Mbappe after Didier Deschamps’ side saw off Belgium in the first semifinal. “It is the dream of dreams, the dream of the future, everything. Not even in my wildest dreams, and I am a big dreamer, would I have imagined this.”

Thirty-two countries pitched up to Russia a month and more ago. All had dreams. Some were fulfilled just by getting here. In France and Croatia being the last two standing, this World Cup has a final that is not far off dream territory. Should France complete a ruthlessly pragmatic journey and claim a second crown, it could be the dawn of a new dynasty, such is the age and talent profile of Les Bleus. Should Croatia somehow find the legs to again confound convention and plain old demographics to go the distance, it would become the smallest nation to win the thing since 1950, an era of soccer so far gone it may as well have been a dream.

Barely 500 kilometres separate Menton on the southeastern coast of France and Rovinj on the northwestern coast of Croatia. The drive, across the top of Italy’s boot and along the Mediterranean coast would take around seven hours. In the context of the millions of miles travelled by the teams and supporters just to get to this World Cup, never mind get around the largest country on the planet, the distances between France and Croatia are minuscule — a short pass across the midfield, a delicate roll out from goalkeeper to defender.

But in terms of of soccer identity and infrastructure these are two countries that are worlds apart. The vast majority of this multicultural French team have been schooled in the gilded academies that are peppered across the country. Mbappe, the breakout phenomenon of this tournament, came through the Clairefontaine centre in Paris, the most storied academy in the game.

Croatia, with a population that’s 2.3 million less than the GTA, has no such system, nor does it have one planned or even one likely. Its national soccer infrastructure is a mess, mired in decades of infighting and controversy that still reaches out to complicate things — captain Luka Modric and defender Dejan Lovren are both facing perjury charges in relation to their evidence in the corruption trial of one of the sport’s biggest powerbrokers there.

Even on Wednesday night, as he was toasting the glorious success of his side reaching its historic new high, manager Zlatko Dalic wasn’t able to turn his mind away from the mess that remains back home.

“This is history being written,” Dalic said. “I don’t know whether a smaller country has made the final of a World Cup. We are supposed to play England in September but we don’t have a stadium to play that game. This is the kind of infrastructure that we don’t have. But we have our hearts, our pride and our players.”

They have two players in particular — Modric and Ivan Rakitic — who stand as generational talents, not just nationally but internationally. That both are master playmakers is no accident. Croatia is a country that puts so much stock in the passmaster No. 10, the creator through which all good comes.

Such has been his consistent supremacy here, Modric looks almost certain to be named the tournament’s best player, even if Sunday doesn’t go his or Croatia’s way. How he and Rakitic will try make their way around France shapes up to be the most fascinating aspect of a final rich in tactical conundrums.

Even Belgium’s vaunted playmakers couldn’t work a consistent way past the French midfield where Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi formed a first shield with N’Golo Kante — the tournament’s other consistently brilliant performer — behind them as the game’s best backup.

More joy may be found out wide by isolating either of the French fullbacks, but the centre

“It is the dream of dreams, the dream of the future, everything. Not even in my wildest dreams, and I am a big dreamer, would I have imagined this.” KYLIAN MBAPPE

of defence is a walled citadel too where Raphael Varane and Samuel Umtiti will relish the physical challenge that Mario Mandzukic brings. Getting Perisic in from the wing to supplement the Juventus man — like he did against England on Wednesday night — will make openings more likely but still not guaranteed.

Nothing is guaranteed, but then that’s the way Croatia would appear to like it. If there was a simple route on Sunday they’d try to find another. What’s the point in taking the easy way having got this far on the hardest road?

All routes lead to Luzhniki Stadium Sunday. Along the way they’ll pass by Tolstoy’s old digs. Two dreams remain. But only one will be seen.