WORLD CUP FINAL: France v Croatia, 4pm BST, BBC and ITV

[Power n Glory]

Magnificent says Shearer.

France stepped it up second half, says Klinsmann.

Pogba was immense according to Rio.

What game were these guys watching? They're talking as if they dominated the game and all their talent finally showed their worth.

Just to recount: 34% of the ball, 7 shots on target.

Even Greece had more of the ball when they won the Euro's.

Spoken like a true Wenger pupil. Possession stats.

[SMatthews]

Spoken like a true Wenger pupil. Possession stats.

Yes that was a joy to watch. Football in all its glory played by some of the most talented players, cheating their way to victory. The beautiful game.

[hobson's choice]

Spoken like a true Wenger pupil. Possession stats.

So true, how many saves did Lloris actually have to make.

[hobson's choice]

The narrative created in the post game by the pundits has been hilarious.

"Oh poor Croatia, they were hard done, France were so lucky, Croatia were the better team, that handball is a disgrace"

[Marc Overmars]

The penalty was a bit harsh but I don’t think the balance of play was so heavily in Croatia’s favour to say the best team lost. Just sounds like glorious failure to me from a nice and functional team but with no real and consistent threat in the final third. I don’t think they would have got anywhere near the final without being in the pub side of the draw and even en route to this final they made it a real struggle going to penalties and extra time in every game.

Meh, ordinary team with a few tidy players.

France are deserving winners.

[Mac76]

The penalty was a bit harsh but I don’t think the balance of play was so heavily in Croatia’s favour to say the best team lost. Just sounds like glorious failure to me from a nice and functional team but with no real and consistent threat in the final third. I don’t think they would have got anywhere near the final without being in the pub side of the draw and even en route to this final they made it a real struggle going to penalties and extra time in every game.

Meh, ordinary team with a few tidy players.

France are deserving winners.

C'mon, Croatia completely bossed it for a good 60 mins, but inevitably the ref's interventions turned the game because they had to try to come from behind

It's not the team with the best players that deserves to win, it's the team that plays the best football, consistently, and Croatia was that team for me, take the point about the draw but they still had a much harder route than, say, england

They beat argentina 3-0 remember, plus beating the home nation with the whole crowd against them and i reckon they'd have beaten germany and spain easily, and would have given brazil and portugal a run for their money too

[Özim]

C'mon, Croatia completely bossed it for a good 60 mins, but inevitably the ref's interventions turned the game because they had to try to come from behind

It's not the team with the best players that deserves to win, it's the team that plays the best football, consistently, and Croatia was that team for me, take the point about the draw but they still had a much harder route than, say, england

They beat argentina 3-0 remember, plus beating the home nation with the whole crowd against them and i reckon they'd have beaten germany and spain easily, and would have given brazil and portugal a run for their money too

Don't really agree with this, Croatia did well in the first half, penalty for me was a tough one could have gone either way, he seemed to stick out his hand, but then it was also close. 2nd half France controlled it and had 2-3 more opportunities they should have scored, Croatia only scored through luck when Loris made a mess of it when France were cruising.

Best side (on the day and in terms of quality) won, I agree with MO their side of the draw was easy no big teams at all in the knockouts, that's unheard of in the World Cup, in all honesty they laboured through that side of the draw, even England could have beaten them if they'd put their chances away in the 1st half when they were on top.

They did well and all that but no doubt the better team won on the day, more quality, more goal threat, more chances.

[Letters]

I didn't actually see the final, watched the highlights this morning. Looked eventful.
The penalty was nonsense in my opinion but otherwise I don't know what you're all crying about.
France were the stand out team in this tournament, IMO. I expected them to win the final and they did.
Overall it wasn't a high quality tournament but France deserve to be champions. I'd buy allegations of fixing if Russia had won it, but they didn't.

[Marc Overmars]

I didn't actually see the final, watched the highlights this morning. Looked eventful.
The penalty was nonsense in my opinion but otherwise I don't know what you're all crying about.
France were the stand out team in this tournament, IMO. I expected them to win the final and they did.
Overall it wasn't a high quality tournament but France deserve to be champions. I'd buy allegations of fixing if Russia had won it, but they didn't.

Some GW villains were successful, that usually means a faux outpour of annoyance.

[Mac76]

Don't really agree with this, Croatia did well in the first half, penalty for me was a tough one could have gone either way, he seemed to stick out his hand, but then it was also close. 2nd half France controlled it and had 2-3 more opportunities they should have scored, Croatia only scored through luck when Loris made a mess of it when France were cruising.

Best side (on the day and in terms of quality) won, I agree with MO their side of the draw was easy no big teams at all in the knockouts, that's unheard of in the World Cup, in all honesty they laboured through that side of the draw, even England could have beaten them if they'd put their chances away in the 1st half when they were on top.

They did well and all that but no doubt the better team won on the day, more quality, more goal threat, more chances.

"more quality" - maybe on overall quality of the side, but take out Mbappe and Croatia's players weren't far off - not just Modric but Strinic, Rakitic, and many others really stepped up though i would admit they wasted some chances

"more goal threat" - no, not until they went 2-1 up thanks to the ref and they could then pick off Croatia on the break

"more chances" - ditto the above

anyway if England had pubbed their way to the title most of you would have said 'we deserved to win, we won through on the day' even though France woudl have been far the better team, so why is it that when it's Croatia that doesn't count for anything and it's all 'oh well France is the better team so that's that'?

Tell you what, why bother holding a tournament, why not just get a panel to assess the quality of each player in every squad and award the trophy to the one that's most highly rated????