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Sun, 15 July 2018
FIFA World Cup Final: France beat Croatia 4- 2
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22:25 FIFA World Cup Final: France beat Croatia 4- 2
France beat Croatia 4-2 to win 2018 FIFA World Cup.
France win the World Cup for the second time!
Champions on home soil in 1998, champions again in Russia in 2018!
22:17 FIFA World Cup Final: France 4 Croatia 2
Time is running out for Croatia, they have to score twice...
22:14 FIFA World Cup Final: France 4 Croatia 2
Free-kick for Croatia. Rakitic swings the ball into the penalty area, where Lloris collects it.
Strinic is replaced by Pjaca while for France Fekir is brought on for Giroud.
21:58 FIFA World Cup Final: France 4 Croatia 2
Mbappe picks the ball up 25 yards before sending a low shot past Subasic and into the bottom corner for his fourth goal of the tournament.
Mbappe becomes the first teenager to score in a World Cup final since Pele.
But in 69th minute, a Lloris howler has handed Croatia a lifeline...
Mandzukic scores!
France 4 Croatia 2
21:55 FIFA World Cup Final: France 4 Croatia 1
What a crucial goal from Pobga!
Pogba's first shot from the edge of the area is blocked, but the ball breaks and he scores at the second attempt in the 59th minute.
Close! Another opportunity for France as Giroud's overhead kick almost reaches Griezmann at the far post. However Strinic turns the ball away for a corner.
Mbappe seals it for France increasing the lead to 4-1
21:46
France make a substitution in the 55th minute. Ngolo Kante comes off and Steven Nzonzi on.
21:44 FIFA World Cup Final: France 2 Croatia 1
Croatia begin the second half brightly again.
It's another fast start from Croatia but they are almost caught out by the Pace of Mbappe.
21:38 FIFA World Cup Final: France 2 Croatia 1
Close!!!
Rakitic slides the ball through for Rebic, who takes on the shot but Lloris tips the ball over the crossbar.
21:35 VAR used for first time in World Cup final
The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was used for the first time in a World Cup final to award France a 38th-minute penalty which Antoine Griezmann scored to give them a 2-1 lead over Croatia on Sunday.
Referee Nestor Pitana was alerted to a possible handball and after checking the off-field screen he decided Ivan Perisic had handled the ball in trying to clear a French set-piece.
The match at the Luzhniki Stadium had already seen the first own goal in a World Cup final when the ball flicked off Croatia striker Mario Manduzkic and past his own keeper to put France 1-0 up after 18 minutes.
FIFA has declared the use of VAR at the World Cup in Russia a success.
21:25 FIFA World Cup Final: France 2 Croatia 1 at halftime
It's advantage France after the dramatic first half. We've had an own goal, a brilliant goal, a VAR intervention, a penalty!
Let's hope for more of the same in the second half.
Will Croatia make a come back, create chances and score another one?
21:18 FIFA World Cup Final: France 2 Croatia 1
Statspack: Ivan Perisic has now been involved in 11 goals at major tournaments for Croatia (7 goals, 4 assists); more than any other player.
Antoine Griezmann's penalty (37:56) was France's first shot of any kind in this match against Croatia.
Courtesy: OptaJoe
21:09 FIFA World Cup Final: France 2 Croatia 1
France's players claim Perisic handled the ball and it's going to VAR!!!
Referee Nestor Pitana signals PENALTY TO FRANCE...
Antoine Griezmann scores!
France 2-1 Croatia
21:04 FIFA World Cup Final: France 1 Croatia 1
Croatia are back on level terms courtesy Peresic.
Vrsaljko heads Modric's free-kick back across goal to Peresic, he takes a touch, shifting the ball past Kante before drilling a powerful shot past Lloris and into the bottom corner. It's level!
21:00 FIFA World Cup Final: France 1 Croatia 1
Perisic blasts the ball past Hugo Lloris with a stunning left-footed strike.
20:55 FIFA World Cup Final: France 1 Croatia 0
Antoine Griezmann wins a free-kick. It's about 30 yards from goal. Griezmann sends the free-kick into the penalty area.
The ball flicks off the head of Mandzukic and lands into the far corner of the net.
GOAL!!! France 1 0 Croatia
Blow for Croatia, who started the game so brightly.
20:50 FIFA World Cup Final: France 1 Croatia 0
France take 1-0 lead courtesy Mandzukic own goal in the 19th minute
20:43 FIFA World Cup Final: France 0 Croatia 0
Croatia are looking good at the moment.
Ivan Perisic chases a pass over the top from Rakitic, but the ball's sent out of play by Umtiti.
France struggling to get out of their own half.
20:41 FIFA World Cup Final: France 0 Croatia 0
More good signs for Croatia as Rakitic swings the ball into the France penalty area. But Pavard makes crucial defensive header.
20:38 FIFA World Cup Final: France 0 Croatia 0
Croatia have started much sharper. France looking nervous.
20:32 FIFA World Cup Final: France 0 Croatia 0
These players will be the biggest games of their professional careers at Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow.
Argentina's Nestor Pitana will take charge of the final.
Croatia players are wearing red and white check shirts, white shorts and white socks. While France wear navy blue shirts, shorts and socks.
19:45 FIFA World Cup final: France and Croatia named unchanged line-ups
France and Croatia both avoided any surprises as they named unchanged line-ups for the World Cup final on Sunday, setting up a heavyweight midfield clash between N'Golo Kante and Paul Pogba on the French side and Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic for Croatia.
Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic brushed aside concerns about possible fatigue after his team played extra time in all three of their knockout matches.
Dalic said on Saturday that he trusted his players he tell him if they were not fully fit. "If they will be unable to give their all during the match I expect them to tell us," he said.
France coach Didier Deschamps has fielded the same starting line-up in every knockout-round match except the quarter-final against Uruguay when Blaise Matuidi was suspended and replaced by Corentin Tolisso.France won all three knockout ties inside 90 minutes and have had an extra day to recover for the final.
19:32 FIFA World Cup: Buyan the bear predicts Croatia will beat France
Buyan, a brown bear kept in a Siberian zoo, has predicted that Croatia will defeat France in Sunday's World Cup final.
Two halves of water melon were laid on in Buyan's enclosure in the Royev Ruchey zoo in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. One half of the melon had a small French flag planted in it, while the other had the Croatian flag sticking out of it.
Buyan, a male Siberian brown bear, sauntered up to the water melon halves, momentarily sniffed at the French one, before shuffling across to the Croatian water melon. He then proceeded to sit down next to it and munch away enthusiastically.
Buyan is one of a menagerie of animals in host country Russia that have predicted the outcome of World Cup games, with rivals including Sochi's Harry the otter, Samara's white goat Zabiyaka, St Petersburg's cat Achilles, Kaliningrad's hippos Milya and Glyasik and Nizhny Novgorod's tapir Cleopatra.
Their predictions have not always been accurate. A Croatian victory would be a huge upset, with France firm favourites to win the World Cup for a second time.
19:30 FIFA World Cup: Hopeful fans gather in Paris
Crowds of cheering French soccer fans began gathering in Paris on Sunday, draped in red, white and blue and singing the Marseillaise, as excitement was building ahead of the France-Croatia showdown at the World Cup final in Moscow.
A day after the nation celebrated Bastille Day - the storming of a prison during the French Revolution in 1789 - with a late-night fireworks display over the Eiffel tower, large numbers began congregating in the same spot to watch the final.
A fan zone had been set up in front of the Eiffel tower with giant TV screens and space for at least 90,000 spectators, officials said. Many were already there five hours before the match kicks off, with faces painted, flags draped and voices in full song.
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