Disagree with Asylum and Tallman
To say that France played with the only quiver they have in their arsenal (unless that was a sly dig at arsenal) is disingenuous IMO.
France was the most COMPLETE team at this world cup. Bar none.
They didn't lose a match
They didn't have to go to penalties
They were in the toughest part of the knockout draw and purge everybody they played. In normal time. With relative ease to boot.
So they didn't turn on the style often enough for our liking. So?
They did what they had to do....efficiently....even ruthlessly at times.
People bawling bout Griezmann dive. So he did. He didn't dive for Mandzukic to put the ball in the net though. Mandukic did that all on his own. Griezmann put in a quality ball. And Griezmann is not the first to dive in this tournament. Every single team did it.
As for the penalty. Ball hit hand in the area. Penalty. Simple enough. Unfortunate? To some extent yes. But that's the game. Everybody plays the same game.
France were more than worthy champions IMO. And I am not a France fan. My team is Brazil.....the 2nd most COMPLETE team in the competition IMO.
Croatia played the better game but goals win matches.
Again I disagree. Croatia played the better 1st half. Much better than France.
But yuh doh always win a game after the 1st half.
As dominant as Croatia were in the 1st half, France were just as, if not more dominant in the 2nd half than Croatia was in the 1st half.
Very similar to the Belgium vs Brazil game. Except......while Belgium were better than Brazil in the first half, they weren't "dominant". Brazil hit the bar and had numerous chances. In the 2nd half....Brazil were dominant but failed to score the required number of goals. That's the difference in the 2 games.