We’ve taken a look at our best lineup from the World Cup, but now we turn our attention to the players that let their country down the most. That’s right people, even during what many consider the greatest World Cup of all-time, there were players and nations that fell flat. Here are our five biggest disappointments of the World Cup.
In the age of sophisticated computer models and immense libraries of statistical data, a variety of big banking firms and statistical aggregation companies tried their hand at predicting the winner for this year’s World Cup. Goldman Sachs, UBS, ING, Macquarie Bank and FiveThirtyEight, all known for their statistical prowess, crunched some numbers and spat out a champion.
The 2018 World Cup came to a stunning conclusion on Sunday with France emerging victorious over Croatia 4-2. It was a hotly contested match with both sides going blow for blow in order to finish with the Cup. Now that the dust has settled on what many fanatics have labelled the best World Cup ever, it’s time to review the month-long festival.
Pussy Riot, the notorious Russian punk rock activist group, staged a show of defiance during the World Cup final between France and Croatia on Sunday. Four of the group’s members, one man and three women disguised in police uniform, ran onto the pitch during the 52nd minute of the second half before being chased and dragged out by security.
Croatia players and manager Zlatko Dalic were gracious in defeat yesterday, admitting that France deserved the victory following second half goals from Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe. However, the likes of Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic still left traces of disgust and defiance in their words when discussing the final’s turning points, particularly the VAR-assisted handball call against Ivan Perisic that sent Antoine Griezmann to the spot in the 38th minute.
That was a really ridiculous World Cup final. After getting extra time and a total of four goals at the last three World Cup finals, the 2018 event was a bit of magic theater. (“Not for everybody.”)
19-year-old France forward Kylian Mbappe put the finishing touches on a blistering World Cup campaign Sunday after scoring his fourth goal of the tournament — the PSG phenom entered the competition with just four international goals to his name.
With his strike long-range strike against Croatia in the 65th minute, Mbappe joined Pele as the only teenager to have scored in a World Cup final. Pele, at the age of 17, scored a brace as Brazil defeated Sweden 5-2 in the final of the 1958 World Cup.
Here’s the goal from Mbappe that effectively buried Croatia today.
With France ceding 66 percent of possession to Croatia in the World Cup final, it should come as no surprise that the top five players in the match with regards to touches were all Croatian. It perhaps goes some way towards explaining the general belief that Croatia looked better than France for large swaths of the game given the amount of influence that both Luka Modric (89 touches) and Ivan Rakitic (85) had on the game.
If those two are allowed space and time on the ball, Croatia's going to look really, really good.
With France nursing a 2-1 lead at halftime of the 2018 World Cup Final, Croatia was forced to go in search of an equalizer against the planet’s premier counter attacking side.