whoa we have a FlashForward and a FlashBack?!?!?!?1
mind blown
Thanks, buddy! 
Flashback mate, that was a tense game. So happy for Croatia. A country with 4m people getting to the world cup final is incredible.
The 1st half was a bit of a struggle but it was the first time they’d faced a 3-5-2 and it took a while to adapt. 2nd half they did amazingly well to pin England back to a 5-3-2 and made England look like what they are, a band of mediocre players that are good at set pieces.
Whilst Croatia’s route in the knockout stages should have been easy playing teams such as Denmark, Russia and England, they really deserve their place in the final after topping the group with Argentina, Nigeria and Iceland. Fair enough they’ve toiled a bit in the knockouts but they’ve come from behind in all 3 games playing 120 minutes, won 2 penalty shoot outs, knocked out the hosts and shown a fighting spirit.
I’m 100% supporting Croatia in the final. France put me off with their display at the end of the game with Belgium. Croatia seem like better sportsmen. Yes Lovren probably should have been booked at least twice for his professional fouls but if the referee isn’t pulling out the cards it’s not his fault, he would have taken a yellow to stop the counter like english players do week in week out in the premier league. They didn’t waste any time at the end apart from when Mandukzic had cramp. Even when celebrating their winner they accidentally piled onto a cameraman and both Vida and Rakatic stopped their celebrations to see if he was alright.
And so the dream is over for England. They had a golden opportunity to get to a world cup final by beating Tunisia, Panama, Columbia, Sweden and a Croatia side who were playing 120 minutes for the 3rd time in 11 days. This was their chance to do it and shouldn’t be mistaken for progress or building towards the future.
Southgate seems like a great bloke and he put a good system in place and made sure they did the basics right like set pieces but the English really got carried away in thinking they were world beaters rather than the beneficiaries of a massive streak of luck. They never stood a chance against a decent side.
Kane choked on the big stage. Even if the rumours are true that he was carrying an injury since the Columbia game he missed some gilt edged chances and was anonymous as soon as the games really mattered. He scored 2 against Tunisia and a penalty against Panama and the English are talking him up as arriving in the world class bracket with Messi and Ronaldo. In my opinion Mandzukic is a far superior player who has a habit of scoring in big games.
The English media eventually must realise that overhyping every single English player that breaks through is counterproductive. Alli, Lingard and Sterling looked like boys among men for a lot of this world cup. Stones showed once again why he’ll never be a world class CB. Pickford, HEnderson, Tripper and Young can come out of it with their heads held high but the rest were pish.
I’m hoping Belgium play their full strength side on Saturday and Lukaku scores a hat trick.
France takes it easily
you never know until they play but yea… based on yesterdays game i tend to agree. for how sloppy england was, most of the french games they have been on target with their passing and looked sharp. hopefully its a good one!
Maybe they would but definitely not easily. Are you the guy who said that ENG-FRA will play finals?
Hi Gringo
We already beat England on Wembley about a decade ago. The game was fair and chances were 50:50. English did not take any advantage of few 100% chances so they were punished. Also, Croatia team has a quality given any criteria and they underestimated us. That always motivates us to give the best.
Congratulations to the French on the winning cup. They just were better. It’s not easy to win against us. They’ve done so for the second time in the crucial game. Unfortunately, their kind of play remains enigma for Croats.
confirmed
First time you failed in your blind guessing, next time you were successful. Congrats!
Make love, not VaR.
Didn’t even know there was a soccer game today. Went to some Bastille Day thing near my apt (they closed down like 3 avenues and had a huge screen with the game on) and was able to hop on the bandwagon just in time. Absolutely stuffed with pate, fois gras, and pasties.
It must be absolutely gutting mate. Croatia really played well and were up for the fight but there are only so many times you can drag yourself back from the brink. Griezmann blatently dived for the freekick for the first goal and Pogba was offside and challenging Mandukic when the ball played in but the defense should never have been so deep. The penalty was a farce.
Fair enough France grew into it in the 2nd but everyone is so busy raving about them and going on about how they’ll dominate for years to come that they’re forgetting that they won this world cup playing counter attacking football and playing the long ball. It’s no different to Portugal at the Euros.
the guy got 1/2. pretty much nostradamus
I picked France to win it all after group stage. England was a bad call, but again, i dont think anyone expected Croatia to play that well
you mean the handball that led to the penalty? or you mean something else?
It was a very entertaining final – Croatia showed great spirit and determination and were the better side in the first half. They were unlucky with the first two goals that France scored but didn’t give up the fight (that was a great goal to make it 1-1). The final had a bit of everything – an own goal, first use of VAR for a while, penalty, pitch invasion, plenty of goals. And Mbappe already a World Cup winner at 19 years old.
the handball, the VAR debacle, all of it. The penalty itself was cold as ice from the little rat faced boy.
yeah, i was quite surprised that a team featuring Modric, Rakatic, Perisic and Mandukic played well