Not bad haha. I predicted 2-0 since I never thought the game would be such a wide game.

" rank 38 " clearly you just got lucky

it's the truth, as much as it hurts some people.. France maybe got the trophy in the end, but they didn't got the world's respect

Not a pen? his hands quickly go down to the ball signifies clear penalty!!!

The free kick for first goal was also won through a dive. I'm sorry, but in no reality is that a pen.

Croatia managed only to score one goal by themselves and not win a single game within 90 minutes the entire playoff. They were not going to win this game with a bunch of "what ifs". People are hard trying making a case for extra time at best, disrespecting France and all their efforts for what they regard to be poor calls from ref. There a lot of worse cases regarding penalty/no penalty... yet you chose one that involves Italy. Biased much?

Not like the wholly legitimate penalty Italy "earned" against Australia? Soup grapes, sour grapes etc. Why don't you concern yourself with getting Italy back to a major tournament. Though with a real manager at the helm and with the size of the Euro field it is probably a given.

Who questioned the penalty vs Australia? I thought Griezmann was taking down. 100 percent penalty.

Regarding Italy - I'm not sure what Italy's current predicament has anything to do with refereeing decisions in a game that didn't involve Italy. I have always been totally realistic regarding the reasons as to why Italy didn't qualify. Simple put - not good enough. My comment was regarding a dive for the free kick leading to the mandzukic own goal and a penalty that was never a deliberate handball.

What did you expect?! You brought up Italy, in a game that also involved France.

Belgium deserves to win the final, there was also some controversial referee decision in that semi-final.

Yes, because Malouda dived and won a penalty. Why is that somehow unexpected to bring up france in? They played in the final and won a penalty through a dive. Just like griezmann dived and won a free kick in this final.

@pelle enjoy 😉

@milan... Well, in 2006 Matterazzi did touch Malouda's heel, causing him to trip (the referee, who was standing just a fee meters back, didn't have the shadow of a doubt and millions of viewers saw it on the replay). After that, he went on insulting his opponents and their family until one of them went mad. But you seem to have absolutely no problem with that.

Yeah, why don't we look back at every WC final? You know, I wonder if Schiavio wasn't offside when he scored the 1934 equalizer for Italy. Czechoslovakia was so much better! Such a disgrace!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6kW-tePv48&t=38s You're either blind or just plain senile. Marco makes absolutely no attempt to take the cheating piece of filth down, let alone doing anything to cause him to trip. The loser was already falling to the floor.

1- click on the link in your previous comment
2- set the viewing speed at 0,25
3- search 0:35 and watch how Materazzi clips Malouda's heel
4- lie down
5- try not to cry
6- cry a lot

cry? We won the game!

and when the referee gifts your oponent 2 goals

@Iker The referee did his job as well as he could. The first one was scored on a free kick. You may think there shouldn't have been a free kick, but no one forced Mandzukic to score an own goal (and no, Pogba wasn't offside, he was covered by Vida's foot). The second one was a clear penalty. Perisic just plainly smashed the ball.
You just wanted Croatia to win, but they lost and you can't take it.

Your neighbours are Austria not France

You are literally the most dumb and biggest troll on this website. Where is Arsene Wenger from? He was born in Strasbourg. And where is Strasbourg? Alsace. And where is Alsace, you imbecile? On the border with Germany.

ha ha. Ever heard of a comma or a full stop? You can hardly string a sentence together without relying on pathetic profanities and here you are pretending to be English. You're not even European. Go back to school and get some geography lessons.

Says the faggot lmao

Pitana had very few arguable mistakes actually, like not showing Modric a yellow card after several fouls during the first minutes but showing it to Kanté on his very first foul a few minutes later.

To matrix: feeling a little sore cause even the bronze medal didn't make it home? I thought so..

In what universe is that not a pen? The only reason he could have to drop his hand that quickly from shoulder height was to try and stop the ball from getting across. VAR isn't even relevant for the free kick, it's only used for mistakes regarding penalties, red cards, mistaken identity and offside.

In the realms of common sense and in the universe of where is he supposed to put his arm? It was at a crucial point in the game Universe. If there is any doubt, which there clearly was as he went back to check the screen, it should not be given.

Thats what they said when Maradona scored with the hand, or when England/Lampard didnt get the clear goal against Germany or when England scored that goal 1966, or when Schumacher didnt get red card 1982 for his assault on Batiston. The list could be made HUGE for why VAR could have saved the day. But instead people whine about a few situations when it is entirely knew even to most refs. It can be improved thats for sure, but ppl are really dumb for disqualifying VAR.

thefrenchman.. if the Rojo handball vs Nigeria was not a penalty, this was definitely not a penaty

That's fine Pelle but what your talking about is Maradonna scoring a goal with his hand, and more importantly whether a ball crossed the line or not. Lampard's Ghost goal, Hurst in 66. That's why we are using technology. Not to check for penalties. The game was in the balance at 1-1. The referee waived play on. The fact that in went to VAR shows there is an element of Doubt. The whole act that the camera, the crowd and everyone around the world is watching that referee when he enters his little box doesn't help. Infact, in a game of this magnitude it changed the game, when it shouldn't have. That's not what VAR was voted in for.

You are wrong. The purpose of VAR is to interfere during 3 main inicidents... Penalty, red card, goal. Which all of my examples fits in with. Fifa explains this in their site.

Free kick 40 m up the pitch doesnt fit in any criterias for VAR to interfere. So crying about VAR is useless here. It is the ref that is to blame.

@Ledley Perisic had his arm up and he suddenly moved it downwards to smash the ball. This is as clear a penalty as you will ever see. I'm glad the referee took his time to make up his mind, this kind of decisions should not be taken lightly.

Argentina would have been a different team with the bruising but incredibly effective Simeone at the helm.

you are from australia and you cant speak english well? df

Since when is Ronaldo 95% gonna win it? Biased much? Not his best personal season from him and didn't go anywhere in the WC only 1 memorable game vs Spain.

@T1lt3d: Messi should get right just like given in 2014 World Cup for marketing reasons.... For all his valiant effort and magic in UEFA and World Cup.... then u will feel fair... lol

Messi outclassed Ronaldo so hard in La Liga!

@Michel Jordon: lol, so u mean La Liga is bigger competition than UEFA and World Cup....Man pls grow up

Modric still has a good shot at the Ballon. He was the driving force behind Croatia's trip to the finals, and as a Real fan you know how important he is to the Galaticos.

Ronaldo outclassed messhit in UCL so hard!

I never said Messi will win for sure either. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the year that finally someone besides Messi or Ronaldo wins it.

But individually you cant really deny that Messi had a better 2017/18 season than Ronaldo.

Yeah scoring 0 goals vs rome when it matters while scoring vs scrubby Spanish teams like girona means he had better season?

He didn't score in the game vs Roma because they defended very well while Barca's mid was awful that game. You can't say Roma are a weak side at all. Hell, they deserved to beat Liverpool imo because they had a lot of calls go against them unfairly over the 2 legs. Anyway, Messi carried Barca to La Liga last season. Top scorer and assister in the league, undefeated for 36 matchdays and then the game he doesn't play they lose, that just shows how much he matters to the team. Also CDR which is important, where Messi also did well and had 2 assists and a goal in the final. Meanwhile Ronaldo's only trophy in 2018 is the CL where he started off brilliantly but was basically invisible in the Semi-Final and Final. Sure he has a great season, especially for 33, but Messi was just that bit better

Don't get too wound up by the stupid comments by people jealous of the youth, flair and talent of this great French side. As long as Lloris has learned from his second major gaffe for France (BTW, Sweden still says "tack" for the earlier one, this team should have more glory ahead of it.

Mbappe won the French title with Monaco and Paris as well as French cup with Paris???

@matrix he said major trophy.. not the farmers league and cup

Major International Trophy. Well yea first Major Trophy.

Croatia was great, but the referee was the best player of France, unfortunately.. for their 1st goal gave a non existent free kick, and a shambolic penalty for the 2nd, this gave France their advantage.. apart from 10-15 minutes in the 2nd half France were second best

Iker89, just like France were lucky to score their 1st, Croatia were lucky to score their 2nd goal. Perisic's handball was one of the clearest penalties of the WC. So that's still a 3-1 advantage to France. Croatia were good, but not efficient. Even though France had a worse game than against Argentina, Uruguay or Belgium, they had an undeniably comfortable win.

Individual talent shinned and showed. Both teams played great, I'd say Croatia maybe edged it when it came to plays, but the talent like Mbappe was filthy.

Hahaha barrac if the perisic handball was a handball then Croatia shoodve had a penalty moments later when giroud handled the ball. Stop being blindsided

Can someone tell Iker to leave his parents' basement for awhile? Assuming he is naming himself after the great former keeper from Spain he should not be debasing a good name. Perhaps he should choose Joey Barton as moniker.

@matrix You must be the only human being to have seen it. What have you been smoking?

not even close, the game was ruined by bad referee decisions

Nah... Best was japan Belgium, then brazil belgium.

"They were much the best today".. you are either blind or just a french fanatic.. Croatia were far the better team in the first half, but the referee was MOTM for France and for the 1st goal gave a non existent free kick, and a shambolic penalty for the 2nd goal, this gave France their advantage.. apart from 10-15 minutes in the 2nd half France were terrible

finally someone with the truth, dont know where als the france hater come from but in fact they were by far the best team in the tournament..

iker you might say this to every game of france but they are just playing clever and have the individuals to do so.. never felt like france won`t win today, its no more about posession as you can see, otherwise real madrid wouldnt have won CL 3 times in a row

Dude the game itself was a bit bizarre when you consider how and where the goals were scored. Whether France was the best team or not is pure opinion. That's why we leave the comments section open.

You're right, France didn't have a difficult road to the final. That's because they won all their matches in 90 minutes against world-class teams, always rising up to the occasion. Croatia qualified against Danemark, Russia and England (who lost twice to Belgium) in extra-time.
What you call a scrappy game against Belgium was celebrated as one of the finest matches of this WC, only lacking more goals due to Courtois' and Lloris' performance.

we don't care about you and your hatred, we won, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, allez les Bleus

waw iker so much butthurt,a team won by far 1-2 goals wasn't considered "lucky",if France won 1-0 by your so called controversial penalty or free freekick leading to Mandzukic goal then we might forcefully agree a bit,but hey its 4-2,enjoy it for the rest next 4 years bro.Allez!

fatboy.. lol, are you really that dumb ?.. if France didn't score those first 2 controversial goals, they would not have that much space for counter attacks to score the 3rd and 4th.. but I see your way of thinking is quite simple

.

And entire Italy squad as well