Ronaldo tucks into 'bread & salt' ceremonial welcome

Paul Pogba wanted his own star and 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe wanted to make an everlasting impression on his World Cup debut. Their wishes were granted as France lifted the World Cup with a 4-2 win against Croatia in the final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow yesterday.

Both Pogba and Mbappe actually settled the fate of the final even before it had progressed to the last quarter, scoring the third and fourth goals respectively in the space of six minutes after the break. Mbappe won the best young player award, an achievement that matched the feat of great Brazilian striker Pele.

For Croatia captain Luka Modric the golden ball was there to proudly aloft. He raised it up amidst thunderous applause from the stands; it was not necessarily only Croatian voices that cheered. But his stony face only portrayed the visage of a heartbroken man who watched from a distance amidst pouring rain as France danced with that glittering piece of glory.

France are deserving winners. True, they were under pressure in the first half and they may have been a bit lucky to win a penalty. But they showed the quality of true champions and mercilessly hit their opponents on the break, which Croatia failed to negotiate.

It was a story of two contrasting halves. Croatia were on the ascendency in the first 45 minutes while it France asserted control after the break. When Argentine referee Nestor Pitana blew the final whistle, the most powerful image was Les Bleus coach Didier Deschamps being toasted by his young charges. Deschamps truly built the bridge after 20 years. He won it in 1998, France's first-ever World Cup triumph. And after the disappointment in the Euro final two years ago when they lost to Portugal, the France legend guaranteed another moment of national pride.

The Luzhniki final saw the first three goals scored every 10 minutes after Mario Mandzukic headed the ball into his own net off an Antoine Griezmann free kick from outside the left-hand box in the 28th minute. Incidentally, it was France's first shot on target, a floater deep into the far post where Croatia's hero of the semifinal against England soared above everybody. It was a header from a class striker that rattled the top left-hand corner, but unfortunately though the Juventus forward was oblivious that he was defending his own goal.

France were lucky to take the lead against the run of play, with Croatia not only starting brightly but also dictating possession. The pall possession ratio of 68-32 in Croatia's favour was reflected in the stands, where the red-and-white stripes overwhelmingly dominated the blues.

Croatia got the deserved equaliser in the 28th minute with Ivan Perisic firing in a scorching left-footer. It was originated from another dead-ball situation after Perisic won a free kick about 35 yards from the French goal. Modric lobbed an intelligent ball wide where Sime Vrsaljko headed it across the penalty area. It dropped for Perisic, who made a little space before unleashing an unstoppable diagonal drive into the bottom right-hand corner.

The third goal came after a lot of deliberation and the referee had to take the assistance of VAR, which ruled Perisic had handled the ball in the forbidden zone. Griezmann was again the initiator with a corner from the same corner flag. N'golo Kante headed it at the near post which struck the stretched hand of Perisic, though unintentionally. Griezmann stepped up to convert the penalty, sending Danijel Subasic the other way.

France went into the lemon break with a fortuitous 2-1 lead. But they returned only to bury the game beyond doubt with Pogba and Mbappe finding the net in the space of six minutes and that too after a pitch invasion by members of Pussy Riot that stopped the final for a few minutes.

Pogba increased the lead in the 59th minute from a rebound after his first attempt was blocked. It was then the turn of Mbappe to become only the second youngest player after Pele to score a goal in the final. The 19-year-old France prodigy drove a spectacular low shot after a little shimmy on the top of the box.

Hugo Lloris's blunder in the 69th minute allowed Croatia to make it 4-2. The France captain unnecessarily waited with the ball before Mandzukic closed in on him and poked the ball into the net as the goalkeeper was trying to cut across him. But that goal served only as a consolation for Croatia, who turned up in their maiden final with great expectations but once against came unstuck against a team they lost 2-0 to in the semifinal 20 years ago.

Cristiano Ronaldo netted his 100th European goal on Wednesday to give holders Real Madrid a 2-1 comeback win at 10-man Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final, first-leg.

Arturo Vidal headed Bayern into a first-half lead, but then skied a penalty attempt on the stroke of half-time before Ronaldo volleyed the defending champions' level.

Bayern played the last half an hour a man down after centre-back Javi Martinez was sent off for two fouls on Ronaldo within three minutes of each other.

Four-time world player of the year Ronaldo then slotted in the winner between goalkeeper Manuel Neuer's legs for the winner 13 minutes from time.

Security was tight at the Allianz Arena in the wake of Tuesday's attacks on the Borussia Dortmund team bus and both teams arrived with a heavy police escort.

There was a large police presence and inside the stadium there was polite applause before kick-off when the announcer made reference to Dortmund's ordeal in the preceeding 24 hours.

Bayern suffered a blow before kick-off when top-scorer Robert Lewandowski, who has netted 38 goals this season, dropped out with a bruised shoulder and Thomas Muller deputised as striker.

Bayern were also missing injured Germany defender Mats Hummels against Real's formidable BBC attack - Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Ronaldo.

Bayern went ahead on 25 minutes when playmaker Thiago Alcantara swung in a corner from the right which Vidal powered through Real goalkeeper Keylor Navas's hands.

The Chile midfielder could have added a second when he headed Arjen Robben's cross wide of the post soon after.

Real made a poor start, rarely threatening Germany's goalkeeper Neuer, back after minor foot surgery a fortnight ago.

A strong drive from Ronaldo on 41 minutes which Neuer blocked having palmed a Benzema header onto the woodwork with 18 minutes played were their best first-half chances.

Vidal could have finished with a first-half hat-trick when he stepped up to take a penalty after Dani Carvajal's handball from a Franck Ribery shot.

However, the Chilean smashed the spot-kick high over the crossbar.

It was a miss Bayern were soon to regret.

Real were level two minutes after the break when Carvajal found space on the right and fired in a cross which Ronaldo volleyed past Neuer.

Bale, who has laboured with an ankle injury recently, came off on 58 minutes and Real raised the tempo after he trudged off.

Having already picked up a yellow card for pulling Ronaldo back on 58 minutes, Martinez was shown a red for again fouling the Portugal captain just three minutes later.

Real's superstar then hit the winner as substitute Marco Asensio, on for Bale, put in a low pass for Ronaldo to tap the ball home between Neuer's legs.

Real defender Sergio Ramos had the ball in the Bayern net with time running out, but the goal was ruled offside but the Spaniards have the upper hand for the second leg at home next Tuesday.

Save the Children has stated that reports claiming Cristiano Ronaldo had donated £5million to the charity to help aid efforts in Nepal were "false" reports The Independent.

According to a report in a French magazine, So Foot, the Real Madrid star donated €7million (£5m) to the charity over the weekend to help efforts for a disaster that has killed more than 8,000 people and 20,000 injured.

A second earthquake has occurred in the region with another 96 dead and thousands more injured.

The 30-year-old also appealed to his 100 million Facebook followers to support the charity's work.

However, Save the Children released a statement to clarify that he had not donated that sum.

"The global ambassador for Save the Children, Cristiano Ronaldo, has used his voice and his global visibility to raise awareness of the problems faced by the most vulnerable children around the world, including those affected by the earthquake in Nepal," it read.

"The latest information on the donation of Cristiano Ronaldo to the emergency response of Save the Children in Nepal is false. After the second earthquake, which has brought further devastation to the country, the NGO wants to thank Cristiano Ronaldo and other influential people for their support in publicising the situation facing children and families in Nepal."

Ronaldo is well known for his philanthropy and has been the charity's ambassador since 2013; he also works with Unicef and World Vision.

The Belgium defender Thomas Meunier praised his team’s defending against Brazil and also said that he expected a better show from the Selecao star man Neymar while defending against him during the Red Devils’ 2-1 win over Brazil in their quarter-final match of the World Cup 2018.

Brazil went 2-0 down in a game where they were considered to be the favourites, courtesy of an own goal by Fernandinho followed by a typical Kevin De Bruyne strike from outside the box just at the half-hour mark in the game. Brazil pulled one back through Renato Augusto’s header in the 76th minute of the game but Roberto Martinez’s men held on to the 2-1 lead as the Red Devils moved into a first World Cup semi-final since 1986.

According to a report from Goal.com, Meunier, playing at right wing-back and directly opposed to Neymar, praised his team's defending and said he was surprised not to be tested more by his Paris Saint-Germain team-mate.

“I didn’t expect that, I expected more difficulties, but we were so organised collectively,” Meunier said after the win.

“I always had help from Marouane Fellaini, from Toby Alderweireld. We were really focused on him, on [Philippe] Coutinho, on Marcelo, and we did a really wonderful job. I think we can congratulate ourselves for the job that we did defensively.

“Even offensively I got really frustrated because I didn't touch the ball. I made a lot of sacrifices for the team and I am happy that we won because of that.” Meunier concluded.

Belgium will now face France in their semi-final tie and according to the Belgium defender Jan Vertonghen, Les Bleus will be harder to defeat as they are a more complete team than Brazil.

“I think France are a bit more complete than Brazil are,” Vertonghen said.

“I think it will be harder to break them down.” Vertonghen concluded.

The semi-final match between Belgium and France will take place July 10 at the St Petersburg stadium.  

Four years ago, Brazil were hit by a tragedy bigger than a tsunami. A 7-1 thrashing by Germany was beyond the wildest imagination of the proud football nation.

Maracanzo was previously the lone tragedy that Brazil ever experienced, when Uruguay denied their first World Cup in the last 15 minutes of the game to clinch a 2-1 victory from 1-0 down at the famous Maracana stadium in 1950. Since then Brazil went on to win five WorldCups, more than any other country.

Brazil were never humiliated like they were on July 8 in the 2014 semifinal. In front of a home crowd, it felt like a brutal public flogging -- a wound so deep that many pundits thought it would take at least a decade to heal.

Some famous football critics even saw the end of Brazilian era in world football. Brazil even vindicated that prediction by sinking further into the abyss after replacing Felipe Scolari with Carlos Dunga.

From number six in the rankings, Brazil are back to number one again. When countries like Italy failed to get a World Cup ticket, Brazil became the first country to qualify for the Russian fiesta. When hot favourites Germany, Spain and Argentina got dumped out of the World Cup, Brazil looked solid and like champions.

The Selecao's recovery is almost like the rise of the mythical phoenix from the ashes. So, was the Brazilian renaissance almost natural? Far from it. The Brazilian football federation played practically no role in it. The federation hit its lowest ebb as three of its bosses had to step down upon corruption charges.

Brazil were lucky to make an all-important recruitment. Brazil are born again and have become a force to reckon with mainly because of one man. He is Tite, The Coach.

The biggest challenge of the Brazilian coach was to fulfil the typical expectation of spectators. Winning is not enough. It has to come in 'Braziliance', through beautiful football. Under Tite, Brazil are playing 'Brazilliance' brand.

Fondly called Professor by his charges, Tite inspired his team to win 19 of 21 matches before the World Cup.

"Tite is a great coach, one of the best in the world. He just doesn't have the status of [Manchester City coach Pep] Guardiola and [Manchester United coach Jose] Mourinho because he's not in Europe. But he's as good as these guys."

Quotes like this from players and critics are common these days.

The secrets of Tite are planning, confidence and motivation. He is very dedicated and has an incredible ability to explain his ideas and explore the best of every player.

The first thing Tite did was institute the rule that there would be no permanent captain for Brazil. The armband is being rotated among players since he took over. The next remarkable step is less dependency on superstar Neymar.

Scolari went into Mission Hexa, the sixth World Cup for Brazil, purely depending on Neymar, who was then 21 years old. But Tite built a squad of several winners, of which Neymar is one. Interestingly, Tite is yet to offer the world's most expensive player the coveted armband. Neymar has to work harder to earn it.

Tite made his team more attacking, but with beefed up defence. Brazil have only conceded six goals in 24 matches with Tite in charge. Conceding seven goals in one game seems to be a thing of the past.

Tite is least interested about the favourites' tag or the No. 1 ranking.

“I care so little about it!” is Tite's reply for journalists. All he wants is hard work from his team. Because, he reminds his charges, talent doesn't win matches.

When Brazil take on Belgium in the make-or-break match tonight, any one of Philippe Coutinho, Paulinho, Gabriel Jesus, Willian, Douglas Costa or Firmino can seize the limelight from Neymar. Any of the players can score or become player of the day.

I believe Brazil will win. And, if it is a victory, the real winner will not be playing in the field but watching the game from the dugout!

The writer is former Sports Editor of The Daily Star