France beats Croatia 4-2 to clinch 2nd FIFA World Cup title

  Moscow: France became champion of the world for a second time after defeating Croatia 4-2 in an entertaining World Cup final in Moscow on Sunday.

Teenage forward and French sensation Kylian Mbappe scored his fourth goal of the tournament for France and the team’s fourth in the 65th minute at the Luzhniki Stadium. Mbappe, 19, became the first teenager since Pele in 1958 to score in a championship final. Pele was 17 when he scored two goals for Brazil in the 1958 final.

Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba also scored for the 1998 champions. Ivan Perisic and Mario Mandzukic scored for Croatia. Mandzukic also scored an own-goal, giving France the lead in the 18th minute.

After half-time, the French pulled away thanks to a strike from Pogba, only for a terrible blunder from Hugo Lloris to let Croatia back into the match. He tried

 to dribble past Mandzukic and the big striker had the simplest tap-in.

However, Mbappé scored to settle the matter and give France their second World Cup.

Croatia was playing in its first World Cup final. For France, it was a first World Cup crown since winning on home soil in 1998.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)