France battered Croatia to be crowned World Champion

VIVE LA FRANCE! The words echo across the stands and set the social world agog as France marched on to glory in Russia.

The French national team are the new world champions.

France opened the scoring through Mario Mandzukic own goal before Antonie Griezman composed himself to shoot the Les Bleus to the lead for the second time in a pulsating encounter after Perisic had levelled matter with a well-taken strike.

France will be ruling the world for the next four years, with the next tournament taking place between November and December in Qatar in 2022.

France did not have it easy and were in trouble despite leading against a high pressing Croatian side but for couple of moments of brilliance and genuis from Kylian Mbappe and Paul Pogba did the trick as France ruled the world for the first time since that maiden triumph on home soil about two decades ago.

France were less efficient and somewhat boring during the early stages of the tournament, only managing to scrap to win against Australia and Peru before that boring draw against Denmark, thus earning a result that ensured they emerge top of the group.

The less efficiency and boring plays were to end in the group stages.

Against last tournament runners-up Argentina, France came to life, finally showing the world what they were capable as they smatched four pass a Lionel Messi's led Argentina who themselves needed a dramatic goal from Rojo against Nigeria to qualify from the group stage.

That match ended 4-3 and was followed by superlative brilliance against Uruguay in the last eight and Belgium in the semi-final.

The final was not to be without a drama. Lloris' howler allowed Mandzukic to pulled one back while the Croatians were still trailing 4-1, although that did prove nothing as France would go on to maintain the scoreline to emerge winners- their second victory in the competition history.

The tournament was indeed filled with exciting moments, with every team giving their all, and no team clearly looked like a favourite until there were just four teams remaining.

This world cup will be remembered as one in which the Video Assistant Technology(VAR) came to prominence as referees relied heavily on it on many occasions for important decision, including awarding penalty in the final.