The Tribune

(Mirror.co.uk) In the end, the best team won.

After 64 matches in Russia, France proved too good for Croatia claim a second World Cup success, defeating Zlatko Dalic's side 4-2 in Moscow and thus earning Didier Deschamps the trophy as a manager that he had led Les Bleus to as captain 20 years ago.

They were kept honest and made to work by a Croatia side full of battle-hardened warriors and no shortage of quality. But on the biggest of occasions, the likes of Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic and Mario Mandzukic were no match for Les Bleus.

A side who have faced questions over not their ability, but rather their style of play, the pragmatic nature of its manager and whether they needed to entertain as well as win, have answered their critics.

Croatia had started the brighter of the two sides, seemingly emboldened by knowing that it was a case of now or never for an experienced side.

But they fell behind when Mandzukic, scorer of the semi-final winner, flicked an Antoine Griezmann freekick into his own net after 18 minutes.

Ivan Perisic fired a stunning equaliser some 10 minutes later to put the Vatreni deservedly on level terms.

However, VAR called the referees' attention to an apparent handball against Perisic when defending at a corner, and on review referee Nestor Pitana elected to award a penalty to France; Griezmann coolly converted from the spot for his fourth of the tournament to hand France a half-time lead.

France took charge in the second period but only after an iffy start to the half where Croatia looked the most likely to score next.

Deschamps made the bold decision to withdraw the under-par N'Golo Kante, on a booking, and replace him with Steven N'Zonzi and watched his side soar ahead through goals from Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe.

Pogba, excellent throughout, curled a lovely left-foot effort into the bottom corner after 59 minutes to give Deschamps side some breathing room, before Mbappe fired home six minute later.

Mandzukic would score after an inexplicable error from Hugo Lloris to give Dalic's side a modicum of hope.

But while Croatia would push to look to get back into the game once more, the day belonged to Les Bleus and Deschamps, who joins Brazil's Mario Zagallo and Germany's France Beckenbauer in winning the World Cup as a player and a manager.