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

If Perisic handball was deliberate, it's safe to say he isn't human with that reaction.
 
Technology is killing the human aspect of football, just like statistics did before.

How should Perisisc expect that kante's head is gonna miss the ball!!

Not a penalty when it's about a "human" sport
 
We're watching a WC final, with one side dominating so far, and people are debating whether or not would it be "deserved" if they actually won it fair and square because they apparently had easier route to the final and still beat everyone? :lol: Some people could watch football for 100 years and never understand it.
 
To say Pogba has been bad would be a compliment.

Let's be honest, that says more about your own agenda than anything else. WhoScored's ratings rate 7 other French players worse than him, which I think would chime would most people not obsessed with Pogba. The whole team have been crap, but he's the only player in the French team to create a chance from open play. Golden boy Mbappe got a free pass for that as usual.

Technology is killing the human aspect of football, just like statistics did before.

How should Perisisc expect that kante's head is gonna miss the ball!!

Not a penalty when it's about a "human" sport

Exactly this debate has been had about handballs 1000s of times before. VAR hasn't fixed that because it's the rule that's stupid, not the decisions. There's so much grey area. People just like the drama that surrounds these decisions and always fall back on a scapegoat.
 
Very harsh penalty call, similar to Rojo v Nigeria which wasn't a penalty.

Trouble here is guy is Latin ref and we see in La Liga pretty much all handballs in penalty area are given whether deliberate or not so guess it's same him reffing in South America.
 
Done well in the previous three rounds.

They've done enough. Nothing special. I thought Belgium were unlucky against them. They play very boring football and their talisman is a diver. In this first half it is criminal that they are in the lead against the team that's actually up for it and trying to win.
 
People saying penalty are really allowing slow mo to have too much influence on their perception. He had no reaction time, no opportunity to move the ball deliberately to the ball. So soft.

VAR changes everything about defending, teams best prioritize set pieces to a greater degree than ever before.
 
I don't understand all the people saying the penalty decision was clear, one way or the other. Wouldn't the fact that all the people on here can't agree, the commentators can't agree, VAR telling the ref to look at it, and then the ref taking ages to make a decision...doesn't all that together make it obvious that it's a difficult decision? Personally I was leaning towards it not being a penalty, but I've got no problem whatsoever with the ref ultimately giving it.
 
France centerbacks look rattled. They can't deal with Croatia's physical duels.

Mandzukic is a handful in the air.

Perisic is also eating pavard alive. There’s a reason you’ve never heard of pavard snd Hernández. They aren’t exactly top players.
 
Where was VAR for the first goal of France?! This is a joke..
 
No he was already lifting his thigh, his hand moving down was because of what he was trying to do with his leg. Unless he lives in the Matrix and has faster hands than Amir Khan. Unbelievable reflexes if that's the case.

Also, would people rather he left his arms above is head or something?

He has to move them down you his side after his jump.
 
He really has, we need him big time to break that crazy pressure from Croatia and he has the ability with his passing but he wants to carry the ball too much.
Ah, got you. Yeah, I can see that pov. Imo he’s much worse in that regard when playing for us. Kroatia have been all over France though, not easy to control possession when you set up to only counter, and barely even that.

Imo Kanté has been the worst player so far. Doesn’t excuse Pogba, of course, he’s long since shown he is massively underperforming when you look at his talent.
 
Feel like there's more goals in this.
 
That is subject to referee's opinion, which usually is based if the hand is on natural position (it wasn't), if it is moving in the direction of the ball (it was) and if it is touching the body (it wasn't).

Unless you put electrodes in people's heads you cannot know 100% the intention.
The hand is moving like the hand of a person who's in the air and is moving towards the ground. Go ahead, stand up and try to jump as high as you can. Your hands aren't going to stay by your side. Hand go outwards from the body because that's how you keep balance.

He's behind the French attacker and jumping for a header. There's no way he's reacting with his arm by catching the ball in that position because I don't believe he's got the split second reflexes of an adult cat to realize that the French player didn't get the ball. That's how I know it's not intentional because I have the replays.

The French weren't denied anything. They've scored two goals now off the back of poor refereeing decisions.
 
The only problem, and one that I couldn't really resolve until the very last replay of the penalty incident that was played after the penalty, was whether the ball hit Matuidi before it reached Perisic.
 
I can't believe anyone actually thinks it's a handball let alone the ref :lol:
 
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.

Yes I agree that it's the refs fault, he made the final decision after looking at the video which makes the decision even more baffling.
 
You know what, i think i'm gonna change my mind here. Not a pen i think. Was no way obvious and probably shouldn't be given.
 
Croatia are a team of bullies. Not interested in playing football. Just gone out to kick and beat the shite out of France and big credit to them it's working beautifully. They shouldn't be behind. The free kick isn't a free kick. The penalty wasn't a penalty.
 
They've done enough. Nothing special. I thought Belgium were unlucky against them. They play very boring football and their talisman is a diver. In this first half it is criminal that they are in the lead against the team that's actually up for it and trying to win.

Sometimes that's all you have to do in a tournament. Portugal did enough v Poland, Wales and Croatia and France couldn't break their wall in the final.

Spain had a similar run at euro 2012. Even in 2010 by definition winning 1-0 is the bare minimum of things.
 
Technology is killing the human aspect of football, just like statistics did before.

How should Perisisc expect that kante's head is gonna miss the ball!!

Not a penalty when it's about a "human" sport

How do you know it was the wrong decision? You can't know what Perisic was thinking in his "human" brain.

All you can do is watch the replays. No different from what the ref did.