DESCHAMPSIONS!
Didier’s tactically superior France hold off marauding Croatia to lift the World Cup, final score 42
MOSCOW: Connecting 20 years and the time when Didier Deschamps’s hair turned from wheat to white, was a boy who has made the kind of impact Pele did in 1958. What a finish to a tournament so full of surprises. What a World Cup!
When Kylian Mbappe made it 4-1 for France in the 65th minute, it was his fourth goal of the competition. Only Pele had more as a teenager. Paul Pogba had scored in the 59th and, having led 2-1 at half-time through a Mario Mandzukic self-goal (18th minute) and Antoine Griezmann’s penalty (38th) that came on either side of an Ivan Perisic drive (29th), France could see their name being engraved for the second time on malachite that holds the 18-carat-gold World Cup trophy. Mandzukic pulled one back when Hugo Lloris had a momentary lapse of reason in the 69th but with Ivan Rakitic and Luka Modric kept quiet, this would prove to be one comeback too many from Croatia.
World Cup finals don’t do goals very well but here there were three inside the first 45. Three goals between the 59th and the 69th made this the highest score in a final since 1966 when England won 4-2. The first three highlighted every talking point of this World Cup. The tournament of set-pieces, check. One that has seen more own goals than any other, check. The influence of VAR (Video Assistant Referee), check.
Two of them were encapsulated in the first goal when Griezmann’s free kick grazed the head of Mandzukic for the 12th own goal of the competition and the first ever in a final. The VAR came into play when Perisic’s hand hit the ball, and though it took Argentine referee Nestor Pitana a while, he was convinced that France deserved a penalty, the competition’s 29th and one that will be debated long after the dust settles in Moscow.
With monk-like calm, Griezmann scored and France were again ahead -- with 39% possession in the first half; again like it has happened so often in this tournament. Before Pogba and Mbappe struck, the best goal of the evening had come from Croatia and involved almost all the players who have been instrumental in getting them this far. It too came off a set-piece; Modric’s floater was put back into the area by that marauding full back Sime Vrsalko and the ball was touched by Mandzukic and Domagoj Vida before Perisic fired an angular delight.
The World Cup has shown how much of a threat the Croat full backs Sime Vrsajko and Ivan Strinic can be, and so it was on Sunday. Till the 51st minute, when he scorched one side of the Luzhniki Stadium pitch, Mbappe’s most important contribution was a block off Strinic. France couldn’t get the ball out of their area but so well-drilled is their defensive work that Lloris didn’t have to make any save.
Like the first half, Croatia began the second strongly and Lloris was needed early to deny Ante Rebic. But in the next 20 minutes, France replaced N Golo Kante with Steven Nzonzi and scored twice; Pogba and Mbappe making the most of the Croatia midfield’s inability to track back.
MOSCOW: In football, pragmatism usually trumps panache. At least that has been the case in the modern game with teams forced to try different styles of play in order to break down conservative opponents.
On Sunday, Croatia were expected to press a France team that has throughout this World Cup campaign refused to have a go at opponents despite possessing one of the most heralded attacks in the world.
Didier Deschamps’s France team has been dubbed reactionary by fans and media alike but it is not just the ability to react to the style of play of opponents but also to different situations that has helped them reach this far.
On Sunday evening, that helped them get past an exuberant Croatian side 4-2 and win the World Cup for only the second time in their history.
At half-time France had just one attempt on Croatia’s goal. Croatia had seven, two on target, and two-thirds of possession.
Yet, while Domagoj Vida did have a chance to head in from a corner right before the end of the first half, Croatia found few openings apart from the one Ivan Perisic scored from.
There was a pattern to the game that was controlled by France for most periods. Croatia’s frenetic start did little to rattle France who were comfortable with allowing Perisic space on the left flank.
France populated the box as soon as the ball came into the final third, making life difficult for the likes of Mario Mandzukic. At the other end, there wasn’t a single chance that France could conjure until the 18th minute. Time and again this summer, they have however shown that France can force opponents into mistakes or pounce at the slightest error.
Both of France’s goals were through set-pieces, both through errors by Croatian players. It was ugly, hardly the kind of football a team of France’s quality would be expected to bank on throughout a World Cup campaign. The reward, however, was handsome.
Deschamps always knew he had the players to pull off something like this. At Atletico Madrid, Griezmann and Lucas Hernandez have both been accustomed to Diego Simeone’s smothering tactics against stronger opponents. Paul Pogba and Raphael Varane have similar taste under Jose Mourinho.
At Chelsea, N’Golo Kante and Olivier Giroud have had doses of reactionary football with Antonio Conte.
PERFECT COMBINATION
Despite the riches available to him, Deschamps had the perfect combination of players who could adapt to different circumstances.
At 2-1, Croatia were always going to respond and they played into France’s hands by perhaps not borrowing from their opponents’ ploy of playing a more patient game.
As Zlatko Dalic’s team pressed, France played with a compact backline. Wingers Perisic and Ante Rebic had a man each to track their runs and Paul Pogba, Blaise Matuidi, N’Golo Kante – and later, his substitute Steven Nzonzi — all helped keep the central areas constricted for Croatia’s attack.
With players at their disposal, France needed only a bit of distraction for an opening. When Pogba scored France’s third goal, the Croatian defence had been stretched thin, allowing the United midfielder to shoot not just once, but twice from the edge of the box.
As Mandzukic, Rakitic, Perisic and Rebic tried to chase every ball after France’s third goal, Deschamps had already won the tactical battle.
A desperate Croatia left space open for Mbappe to shoot in France’s fourth.
Two years after Portugal had frustrated France’s attack in the 2016 European Championship final, Deschamps mastered the art of mastering circumstances. In the process he joined Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer as the third person to win the World Cup both as player and coach.
Croatia’s never-say-die spirit and pressing ability may have taken them to a maiden final but the adaptability of France won them the World Cup.