Russia: The Unexpected Ballet
Croatia play football as though the weight of a small nation of four million people sits on each player's chest, and they carry it well. Their path to the final — penalties against Denmark, then Russia in the quarter-final, then England in the semi-final — required them to go to extra time in all three knockout matches and win penalties twice. Luka Modrić, who would win the Ballon d'Or later that year, played approximately 420 minutes of football in eleven days. His legs should have had nothing left. In the final, he ran for ninety minutes and played perfectly.
France were the better team and they knew it and Croatia knew it and everyone watching knew it. What Croatia had was the will to compete beyond the point at which will should logically suffice. Ivan Perišić equalised after an own goal, and for twenty minutes Croatia looked as though they might overturn the most technically gifted French squad since 1998. Then a disputed handball, a Griezmann penalty, goals from Pogba and Mbappé, and the arithmetical conclusion was confirmed.
Mbappé at nineteen was the tournament's announcement. Not a finished player — he remains a player becoming, a talent still developing — but someone operating in the final at a speed and directness that made Croatian defenders look briefly stationary. His goal — a controlled drive low across Subašić — was his fourth of the tournament. Pelé in 1958 was the last teenager to score in a World Cup Final. The comparison was made immediately and will be made again.
Russia as a venue produced unexpected pleasures. The country whose football infrastructure had been largely invisible to the world revealed cities of genuine beauty — Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi — and a capacity for hospitality that the pre-tournament commentary had underestimated. The football itself was among the most open of any recent tournament: Germany's group stage exit, Japan's extraordinary late equaliser against Belgium that Belgium overturned, Senegal's last-sixteen elimination on the yellow card rule. The unexpected ballet was performed, for once, by more than one troupe.
MATCH FOOTAGE
2018
France 4–2 Croatia
2018
France 1–0 Belgium
2018
Croatia 2–1 England (AET)
2018
Belgium 3–2 Japan
2018
Belgium 2–1 Brazil
2018
Argentina 3–4 France