I think overall France are deserved winners. They've been the most balanced side of the tournament. Extremely well organised and tough to breakdown at the back, with an excellent keeper (this afternoons error aside!), a great midfield marshalled by the best defensive midfielder in the world in Kante, and clinical, pacey & direct in attack, led by Mbappe. Don't underestimate the role Giroud plays in this side either. They've just been brilliant to watch at times, especially against Argentina in the round of sixteen.
For me, watching a team defend so well, soak up pressure then break on the counter attack with direct passing on the floor and with great pace is as good as football gets. It's better to watch than the tikka takka that Spain bored us to death with from 2008-2012.
Croatia ran France all the way today, but just didn't have the quality to finish off the chances they created. They were the better side for large periods of the game. In fact I can only really recall France looking threatening for about a 5-10 min spell in between the third and fourth goals. I think Croatia can feel hard done by with the decision to award a free kick for the OG as well as the VAR penalty. How can the referee award a pen when he was clearly not 100% certain that it was a penalty?
I'm not sure what the older folk on here would say, my first World Cup I can recall was France 1998, and this World Cup tops any previous World Cup by some distance, both as a neutral and from an English team performance point of view. I haven't personally witnessed a boring match and every knockout game has been entertaining. The final was a fitting end to what has been a thoroughly excellent and enjoyable tournament.
