The World Cup Final: France vs Croatia (Kickoff 16H00 BST)

Is it me or does this not feel like a World Cup final day? I had to see someone post on snap before I realised ‘oh yeah today is the word cup final’ lol and IIRC the previous two finals were played in the evening cos I remember watching it and the sky was dark on tv

Time differences account for that (Brazil ‘14, South Africa ‘10 and Germany ‘06). The last time Europeans had an early kick-off for a World Cup Final was Korea-Japan in 2002.
 
It did though.

Nope. Just because the ball hits a players hand doesn't mean it's handball, handball is a deliberate hand to the ball, which in this case it wasn't, VAR is just a load of shit and the referees are not any better.
 
If France end up winning this it will be the least deserving win in a World Cup I can remember. The first goal was a major ref mistake and they were beyond fortunate with the second. It's a team that's really hard to like.
 
Croatia have been the better team.
 
He sees the ball at the last second and swats it away.
If he didn't follow through like a vollyball player and it bounced off him instead I could see it being unintentional.
IMO he instinctively moves his arm towards it as a sort of last second panic manoeuvre.
Its not like it was a mile away from his body, he kind of flinched.

He was lifting his thigh to block it. You naturally move your hands downwards when you're trying to lift you leg quickly.
 
France undeserving on their lead so far. I really hope that we get more goals in the second half. For a team to win the World cup like that would be very anti climatic
 
That's just silly. Didn't Croatia have 2 penalty shootings and another extra time win?

Croatia have made the easier route look hard.

You can't tell me Denmark, Russia and England is harder than Argentina, Uruguay and Belgium.

It's not France's fault they won all of them in 90 minutes.
 
Good on you France. I can't understand ppl saying that wasn't a pen, that is as clear pen as it can be. :lol:
 
We're better but for bad luck were behind.
Yep. Own goal after a dive, then a bad luck penalty when it wasnt even a chance for france all the they've done. You guys dominated but behind because of that.
 
Would France please attempt to actually play some football in the second half? They've been terrible but somehow ahead.
 
Yep. He lowers his hand into the ball once the French player missed it.
Do you realise that in the 0.2s time frame in which that happened there is no time for your eyes to capture that information, your brain to process it, and then send a proper message to your muscles to react to it? It's pure physiology, not even debatable.

That movement has started far before the French player missed it. It's idiotic that these things are penalties. But then my opinion is the same for 90% of the handball penalties which are attributed. No foul in them.
 
France are fecken awful.

Not a single feckin attack. Giroud didnt touch the ball.

Yet two setpieces, one of which was a disgusting dive, the other a lame penalty, and they will win it.

Most undeserving half time i've seen.
 
France have been awful in pretty much every department, really hope Croatia turn it around. They've been the superior side by miles.
 
Weird game. France has been poor, yet they're in the lead.

Pogba is shit as usual in big games.
 
Wow an own goal, a wonderful goal and a var penalty..... good half for me
 
So Umtiti laid down like he was so hurt only to just want the game to be stopped for him? This is the part I hate about footballers. Lets rid it out of the game.
 
Kante worst player on the pitch wow he's si shite
 
Good on you France. I can't understand ppl saying that wasn't a pen, that is as clear pen as it can be. :lol:

Yup, but the hipster flavour of the month is to bitch about VAR and claim it is «destroying» football!
 
Pogba who was in offside pushed manzukic. Where was fecking var there? This is ridiculous. I am fuming
 
This is what people are overlooking, slow motion distorts things massively. There's no way someone can adjust in the timeframes we're talking about.

Exactly.

All this "he moved his hand towards the ball" is complete guff.

No one can move their hand so quickly
 
Nope. Just because the ball hits a players hand doesn't mean it's handball, handball is a deliberate hand to the ball, which in this case it wasn't, VAR is just a load of shit and the referees are not any better.
Don't get this. VAR did its job, which is giving the ref a second chance at something he missed. If you want to blame someone, blame the ref.
 
“Moved his hand towards the ball”, smh some people really do live in their own world.
 
Time differences account for that (Brazil ‘14, South Africa ‘10 and Germany ‘06). The last time Europeans had an early kick-off for a World Cup Final was Korea-Japan in 2002.

You’re right lol dunno why I didn’t take into account time differences
 
Good on you France. I can't understand ppl saying that wasn't a pen, that is as clear pen as it can be. :lol:
The first goal was bs though. Dive from Griezmann for the freekick and Pogba influenced that goal so should be called for offside. Add to this that France have not been playing football at all whilst Croatia have been all over them this "good on you france" seems more a wum attempt to go against the flow instead of looking at the ongoings of the whole match.
 
Really turning against this France team. It annoys me how little they have to do to win. Especially when you look at their attacking talent and how underused it is.