France v Croatia, 15 July 2018

Kick-off: 6.00pm local France v Croatia was Match 64 of FIFA World Cup 2018 Refereeing team: Referee: Nestor Pitana (Argentina) Assistant Referee 1: Hernan Maidana (Argentina) Assistant Referee 2: Juan Belatti (Argentina) Fourth Official: Björn Kuipers (Netherlands) Reserve AR: Erwin Zeinstra (Netherlands) VAR: Massimiliano Irrati (Italy) AVAR 1: Mauro Vigliano (Argentina) AVAR 2: Carlos Astroza (Chile) AVAR 3: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands) This was France's third World Cup final. They also won in 1998 but lost on penalties in 2006. They had now reached more finals in the last 20 years than any other nation (Brazil and Germany two each). France and Croatia had met five times previously; France won three and two drawn. The first meeting was the only previous World Cup encounter in 1998 when France, captained by Didier Deschamps, won the semi-final in Paris (2-1) with two goals from Lillian Thuram. At 19 years and 207 days, Kylian Mbappé became the third-youngest player to appear in a World Cup final. Brazil's Pelé was 17 years and 249 days when he played against Sweden in the 1958 final while Giuseppe Bergomi was 18 years and 201 days when he played in Italy's 1982 win against West Germany. After Pelé in 1958, he also became the second-youngest scorer in a World Cup final. 27 years after their declaration of independence, Croatia became the 13th nation to reach a World Cup final and the tenth from Europe. With a population of around 4.2million, Croatia became the smallest nation to reach a World Cup final since Uruguay in 1950 (population approx. 2.4million). The population in France in 2018 was a reported 65.2million. Didier Deschamps became the third person to win the World Cup as a player and as a manager (also Brazil's Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer of Germany). Mario Mandžukić became the first player to 'score' an own goal in a World Cup final. 12 own goals had now been scored at Russia 2018; double the previous highest total at a World Cup finals (six in 1998). Mandžukić also became only the second player to score for both teams in a game at the World Cup finals; also Netherlands' Ernie Brandts versus Italy in 1978. Antoine Griezmann's penalty became the first incident in a World Cup final to be awarded with the aid of the video assistant referee (VAR). Referee Nestor Pitana was advised to review a handball by Ivan Perišić from a France corner. This was the first time that six goals had been scored in a World Cup final since England's 4-2 win against West Germany in 1966. France became the first nation to score four goals in a World Cup final since Brazil (4-1) against Italy in 1970.