France’s Pavard wins World Cup goal of the tournament for strike against Argentina

France

right-back Benjamin Pavard has won the 2018 World Cup goal of the tournament award for his stunning strike against Argentina, FIFA announced this week.

The 22-year-old Stuttgart defender ran onto a left-wing cross from Lucas Hernández and sent a right-footed halfvolley spinning into the top corner to level eventual champions France’s last-16 tie with Argentina at 2-2 in the 57th minute. France went on to win the game 4-3 before beating Croatia in the final on July 15.

Pavard’s effort won a public vote to be named the best of the 169 goals scored in the tournament, seeing off competition from Colombian midfielder Juan Quintero’s freekick against Japan and Luka Modric’s goal in Croatia’s 3-0 group-stage thumping of Argentina.