A triumph of substance over style
MOSCOW — Didier Deschamps’ France side did not always win admirers for the way they played at the World Cup, but that doesn’t matter to the hundreds of thousands celebrating on the streets back home after Sunday’s final victory over Croatia.
France won 4-2 at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, with star men Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe all scoring as France lifted the trophy for the second time in its history.
It is the first team to score four times in the final since Pele’s great Brazil side beat Italy 4-1 in Mexico in 1970, and the match was the highest-scoring World Cup final since England’s 4-2 victory over West Germany in 1966.
It was achieved with a brilliantly talented set of players, embodied by 19-year-old Mbappe, not even born when France last won it in 1998 and now the youngest player to score in a World Cup final since Pele in 1958.
Mbappe had already lit up the tournament with his electric performance against Argentina, scoring twice in his side’s 4-3 last-16 win.
But those two high-scoring encounters do not provide an accurate picture of the way Deschamps’ team played throughout the tournament.
In their five other matches, the French scored a total of six goals, including two Griezmann penalties and one own goal.
They were also involved in the only scoreless draw and arguably the dullest match of the tournament — against Denmark in their second group game.
Against Croatia, Griezmann’s penalty gave France a 2-1 lead in the 38th minute — Les Bleus’ first shot on goal.
France’s opener was a Mario Mandzukic own goal — a good start for a team that finished with just 39 percent possession.
With a shrug, Deschamps asked after the game: “Are we beautiful champions? Well, we are world champions and will be on top of the world for four years.”
Criticism
Deschamps has been criticized throughout this competition, and throughout his six-year tenure, for his style of soccer. Yet this win follows the near miss of Euro 2016, when as host France lost in extra time to Portugal in Paris.
Deschamps became the national team’s longest-serving coach during this tournament, and the progress has been constant since he took charge in 2012 and took the team to the quarterfinals at the 2014 World Cup, losing to eventual winner Germany.
This time, while the Germans went out in the group stage, France went all the way.
Deschamps has always been a winner, going back to his playing days when he captained France to glory at the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 and won the Champions League with Marseille and Juventus.
“I have never seen or experienced a World Cup like this one. There was a leveling off towards the top, and the so-called smaller teams came in so well prepared physically,” he said as he defended his reactionary style.
“They hurt the countries who I always remember as being the strongest. The teams who had most control in terms of possession were practically all punished by quick attacks.
“In football if you know how to defend well, you can be sure that you will get at least two or three chances on the counterattack or from set pieces.
“Against Denmark we were not very nice to watch. That would not have been enough had we kept playing like that, but we managed to keep raising our game.”
Now Deschamps will surely stay at the helm as long as he wants it.