Moscow: France became champion of the world for a second time after defeating Croatia 4-2 in an entertaining World Cup final in Moscow on Sunday.
France claim their second FIFA World Cup after 1998 and are the sixth country to win the World Cup on multiple occasions after Brazil (5), Germany (4), Italy (4), Argentina (2) and Uruguay (2).
Teenage forward and French sensation Kylian Mbappe scored his fourth goal of the tournament for France and the team’s fourth in the 65th minute at the Luzhniki Stadium. Mbappe, 19, became the first teenager since Pele in 1958 to score in a championship final. Pele was 17 when he scored two goals for Brazil in the 1958 final.
Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba also scored for the 1998 champions. Ivan Perisic and Mario Mandzukic scored for Croatia. Mandzukic also scored an own-goal, giving France the lead in the 18th minute.
After half-time, the French pulled away thanks to a strike from Pogba, only for a terrible blunder from Hugo Lloris to let Croatia back into the match. He tried to dribble past Mandzukic and the big striker had the simplest tap-in.
Didier Deschamps has become the third person after Mário Zagallo for Brazil and Franz Beckenbauer for West Germany to have won the FIFA World Cup as both a player and a coach.
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