Coupe de Monde Motto – Allez Les Bleus
Macron & Pogba DAB
Luka Modric - Golden Ball Award
Harry Kane - Golden Boot Award
Thibaut Courtois - Golden Glove Award
Kylian Mbappe - FIFA Young Player Award
TThe Best XXIII scouted by The Royal45 Group:
Pickford, Schmeichel
Meunier, Pavard, Maguire, Trippier, Varane. Mina, Thiago Silva,
Rakitic, de Bruyne, Modric, Coutinho, Rebic, Hazard, Pogba, Perisic, Kante, Matuidi,
Cavani, Griezmann, Lukaku, Mbappe
We start the exhaustive analysis by stating the France throughout a whole month of football played at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia only found themselves behind for 9 minutes (that was versus Argentina) – Please find better numbers…
And so off we go…the only shot that France had in the 1st half was the controversial penalty-kick converted by Griezmann. Reminiscing Belgium versus Brazil that were leading the match without a shot on target. Same here. France!
Among the best idiosyncrasies unfolded throughout the match were – the last 15 mins + early 15 minutes played at the highest tempo by Croatia with great quality football did not materialized into goals – Croatia scored always before or after those moments.
How many balls did France lost and Croatia could not capitalize into chances, let alone goals?
10 goals in 60 appearances – That’s Paul “DAB” Pogba!!
He initiated and finished the actions that lead to the 3rd goal and Pogba kept dropping through balls destroying the Croatian lines and zones of duty – defensive line and the zone pertaining the midfielders.
Mbappe killed the show and shut the door for Croatia as soon as the teenager stroke thunder into Subasic’s net reminding of Modric goal versus Argentina. 4 goals for Mbappe in 7 matches and he gets in the immortality frame painted by the memory of fans, pundit and critics all around the world – alongside Pele. 19 years old | €200 million+ transfer | Champion in France domestically and taking France as Champion du Monde
In the last 44 years, since 1974 World Cup in West Germany, all teams that have score the first goal have ended up winning the competition, apart from France that lost it in 2006 versus Italy.
Croatia reached the final by coming from behind in all matches in the knockout stages. Always conceding in the first 30 minutes. France never lost a match in the competition when scoring first.
Inter and Bayern Munich have provided players to feature in the final of the World Cup ever since 1982 – Tolisso, Perisic, Brozovic,
France played in 5 different finals since 20 years ago in major competitions – Brazil 4, Argentina 4, Italy, Spain and Germany 3
We had VAR, an own goal, a player scoring in two different nets, the goalkeeper funniest error leading to a goal, the set-pieces, a penalty, the pitch invasion, thunder storms and heavy rain, etc.
France – The 2nd youngest team in the competition – hypocrite, cynical, constant, consistent, technical, idealistic – The new romantic football…
A Pussy Riot claimed pitch invasion entertained the fans worldwide with a political message over the 52nd minute and the only one that really, really was not enjoying it, that was Lovren… Unexpected anarchy outspread from the stands into the field and then on the field things became anarchic as well – That apart from the ball possession – Always with Croatia, almost a democratic football by them.
French continued their revolutionary approach into a Musée du Louvre portray of Mona Lisa’s two stars shirted painting as they added contemporary colors to the artistic drawing.
What you cannot make with the right foot, you perform with the alternative foot, and left it is for Mr. Pogba
And French own Speedy Gonzales aka Doc. Goal flavored Frappé – Kylian Mbappé added further brilliance to a not so spectacular performance by France, but enough to kill the show for Croatia.
A romantic French World Cup accent reminiscing the once European Championships lost at home against Portugal in 2016 was the inspiration to fulfill the dreams of millions à La Française.
Not only Discipline and Resolve but as well Perseverance playing a dominant role for Les Bleus – Pogba, Griezmann, Mbappe, Kante, Pavard & company always looked like winning “everything and all” throughout the competition even at the expense of the most boring displays accomplished, but all of those performances including the final chapter came with significant touches and clinical finishing apart from the Phantom of Opera part II – Giroud.
“During the final game of the World Cup, Conviva measured a massive 9.12 million peak concurrent plays (PCP), smashing previous records as more than 9M people tuned in at once to see Croatia take on France. Previously, the record for peak concurrency was held by the 2018 Super Bowl, measured by Conviva at 5.5M PCP. World Cup futbol broke the Super Bowl football record on day 1 of the World Cup with 6.33M PCP, and didn’t stop there. During the 30-day tournament, there were 22 days where PCP exceeded the pre-World Cup record of 5.5M PCP, and by the final game Conviva measured traffic which set new PCP records 5 times over.”
“When it comes to TV audiences, the 2018 World Cup looks set to break many all-time records. Research company GlobalWebIndex is forecasting total viewership of 3.4 billion, or nearly half the total world population of 7.6 billion, for the entire tournament. That compares to 3.2 billion who tuned in for the 2014 event in Brazil.”
Between 10%-20% of World Cup viewing occurred online.
Over 7.5 billion engagements across all FIFA digital platforms
1.25 billion video views during the FIFA World Cup Over
580 million interactions on FIFA social media platforms during tournament
“Speaking of broadcasting, the World Cup TV audience will exceed 3 billion people and the final match TV audience was more than 1 billion people roughly estimated,” Sorokin said. He also mentioned that more than 3 million people watched World Cup matches at the stadiums. Events like the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, and the NCAA men’s basketball finals all saw noticeable declines in their linear numbers within the last year.
Football or Soccer you can call it what you want but still, the most practiced and popular sport in the world even in countries where it is not the most “loved sport” nor has the mainstream reach.
Champions of creativity and possession – Croatia
Champions of set-pieces – England
Champions of group football – Belgium
Champions of insignificance – Germany
Champions of the fans – Peru, Iceland, Mexico, Russia
Champions of fair-play – Japan, Senegal
Champions of disappointment – Argentina, Portugal, Brazil
Champions of the “almost” – Australia, Nigeria, South Korea, Morocco, Switzerland, Denmark
Champions of surprise – Russia
Champions of “next time” – Spain, Uruguay
Champions of efforts – Panama
Champions of tourism – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Costa Rica, Serbia, Iran, Colombia
Champions of something – Poland
Champions of Ibrahimovic – Sweden
Champions of Politics – Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic
Medal of Honor – Fans, Football fields, stadiums, organizing cities, cultures, weather, technologies…
The Dream Team handpicked by the fans:
Courtois, Marcelo, Varane, Godin, Thiago Silva, Coutinho, Modric, de Bruyne, Ronaldo, Kane, Mbappe.
The Dream Team picked averagely by the analysts:
Lloris, Lucas Hernandez, Maguire, Varane, Trippier, Pogba, de Bruyne, Hazard, Neymar, Mbappe, Kane.
Most Man-of-the-Match awards:
Griezmann 3
Modric 3
Hazard 3
Kane 3
2.6 Average Goals Per Match
3.5 Average Yellow Cards Per Match
0.06 Average Red Cards Per Match
775.8 Average Passes Per Match
Top goals – Belgium – 16 Goals
Best Attacking – Croatia – 352 Attacks
Best Passing – England – 3336 Passes Completed
Best Defending – Croatia – 301 Clearances, Tackles + Saves
Most Assists – 2 – Griezmann, de Bruyne, Hazard, Meunier, Coutinho, Golovin, Dzyuba, Messi, Quintero, Khazri
Most Minutes Played:
Modric – 32 years old - 694 Minutes – (72.3 km Distance covered 29.8 km Distance covered in possession, 25.4 km Distance covered not in possession)
Maguire – 25 Years Old - 645 Minutes – (65.1 km Distance covered, 24.5 km Distance covered in possession, 25.3 km Distance covered not in possession)
Stones – 24 Years Old - 645 Minutes – (69.1 km Distance covered, 27.9 km Distance covered in possession, 25.3 km Distance covered not in possession)
Rakitic – 30 years old - 639 Minutes – (72.5 km Distance covered, 28.7 km Distance covered in possession, 27.4 km Distance covered not in possession)
Perisic – 29 Years Old - 632 Minutes – (72.5 km Distance covered, 29.5 km Distance covered in possession, 24.1 km Distance covered not in possession);
519 centimeters made Luka Modric (1.72m), Eden Hazard (1.73m) and Antoine Griezmann the smallest combined height of the adidas Golden, Silver and Bronze Ball recipients since Toto Schillaci, Lothar Matthaus and Diego Maradona had merely 512 centimeters between them in 1990.
14.3 per cent gave David De Gea, the pre-tournament favorite for the adidas Golden Glove, the lowest save ratio at Russia 2018. The 27-year-old made only one save and conceded six goals in four appearances. Kasper Schmeichel admirably saved 91.3 per cent of the shots he faced (21 of 23) – higher than any other goalkeeper who played more than one match.
10 Belgians scored at Russia 2018, equaling the record for most marksmen from one country at a World Cup shared by France in 1982 and Italy in 2006.
Once we arrive to Qatar it will be 64 and then in USA, Mexico, Canada 68 years since South American sides won a World Cup in Europe
FIFA Rankings
Rank Team Points
1 Germany 1558
2 Brazil 1431
3 Belgium 1298
4 Portugal 1274
5 Argentina 1241
6 Switzerland 1199
7 France 1198
8 Poland 1183
9 Chile 1135
10 Spain 1126
11 Peru 1125
12 Denmark 1051
13 England 1051
14 Uruguay 1018
15 Mexico 989
16 Colombia 986
17 Netherlands 981
18 Wales 953
19 Italy 951
20 Croatia 945
21 Tunisia 910
22 Iceland 908
23 Costa Rica 884
24 Sweden 880
25 United States 873
26 Austria 845
27 Senegal 838
28 Slovakia 804
29 Northern Ireland 803
30 Romania 782
31 Republic of Ireland 777
32 Paraguay 773
France 4-2 Croatia
(M. Mandžukić '18 og | A. Griezmann '38 pen | P. Pogba '59 | K. Mbappé '65 ; I. Perišić '28 | M. Mandžukić '69)
