My last post before the last match of Russia 2018. The sadness of the finality will be described tomorrow.
Today, in keeping with family tradition, I am supposed to make a prediction. But if you've read anything I've written for the past 1030 days or so you'll know I don't do public predictions. Maybe by the end of this I will.
When I was asked about who I thought would win the Belgium-France semifinal my answer was, "my heart says the fun, attacking Belgians but my head tells me to be sensible and go for a win for the pragmatic French."
My feelings are similar for tomorrow. My head really has to say France. They have controlled pretty much every match they have played in Russia. When they went 2-1 down to Argentina in the last 16, they shrugged their shoulders turned up the heat for a few minutes and wrestled back the initiative. No problem, we were never worried. Didier Deschamps has them playing in such a way that a burst of speed from Kylian Mbappe sets hearts racing because it's such a contrast to the conservative approach the team employs the majority of the time. And I did say whoever won the France-Uruguay quarterfinal would win the whole thing.
Croatia are the sentimental favourite, the team from the country that has captured so many people's hearts with their passion and stories of surviving the terrible Balkans war in the early 1990s. And in this tournament they have fought many a battle on the pitch and come through them all. Destiny is the word that comes to mind. I find it hard to imagine Croatia not fulfilling that destiny.
This is a tough one and what I wrote on Day 3 after both teams' opening matches doenst help me much.
"Earlier France beat Australia 2-1 in the Italian way, the Italian way where they go on to win the whole thing." (They won through a penalty and an own goal). France are either going to have a Nicholas Anelka player revolt moment or they are going to go on and win the whole thing."
"And even later Croatia tamed Nigeria with an own goal and a penalty. Hold on. If France don't have their meltdown, does this mean Croatia are going to win this thing?"
I did not change any of that. It is really what I wrote. It's not quite my 1990 dream but I do believe they are the only two teams I mentioned as potential winners.
Can I predict a draw? It's the sensible option versus the one driven by passion. Who comes out on top. Ok here goes. Why do I worry about making predictions anyway? In the end it's just a guess. Not even the most intelligent football brain can foresee an unlucky own goal, or a team that hits the post 4 times and loses when the other team scores with their only shot.
As much as I love the passion, here it is....France 1-0.
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