Russia 2018: The French advance

Russia has in every sense justified the confidence of FIFA when it was given the opportunity to host the 2018 World Cup.

So, it can be said that this World Cup completely lived up to expectations - spectacular football was played, in 12 spectacular stadiums in 11 cities, and in the end, France, a team that may not have played the best, but was perfectly "in high spirits" in terms of competition, was the winner.

France reached the "goddess", the second in history, with a convincing victory over Croatia, celebrating with a score of 4:2 at a packed "Luzhniki" stadium in Moscow.

Tim Didier Dešan did not excel in the group, struggling and winning seven points in competition with Australia, Peru and Denmark, and when they eliminated Argentina led by Lionel Messi (4:3) it became clear that the "tricolors" know how to get to the title.

It then became clear that Mbappe "a devil of a player" - he was a double scorer, it was obvious that with a solid defense he was the main asset of the French team on their way to the top of the world.

In Russia, the competition's framework was probably fatal for some teams. Namely, France, Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, Portugal... were in the same part of the framework, while in the other, practically everyone saw a chance to go far.

In that second part of the skeleton, Russia shocked Spain in the round of XNUMX (eliminated after penalties), before falling to the Croatians in the quarterfinals in the same way.

Croatia reached the final by winning over the English who, although they were later defeated in the duel for third place by Belgium, left the impression of a team that is growing and capable of a lot.

And in the final between France and Croatia, it started off on fire. The French took the lead with an own goal. Mario Mandzukic, the "fire" equalized through Ivan Perišić, so that at the end of the first half Antoine Griezmann With a penalty kick, he steered the match the way Deschamps wanted.

By the 65th minute it was already 4:1 (Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe), when it became clear that the composition Zlatko Dalić there can be no surprises.

Croats, however, had no reason to despair, they were welcomed as heroes in their homeland, because this generation did more than even the one from 1998, which was ranked third in France.

In Russia four and a half years ago, another, penultimate chance for Lionel Messi to win the "goddess" was lost, while Deschamps made history. The legendary Frenchman became the third man to be world champion as both a player and a coach - after the German Franz Beckenbauer and Brazilian Maria Zagala.

The best player of the World Cup was Luka Modrić, the best young Mbappe, and the World Cup also marked Harry Kane - with six goals he was the most efficient, as was the fantastic Belgian Eden Hazard.