Do or die for Brazil against Serbia

On Sunday night Griezmann and his team mates produced a pulsating performance before falling to the ground, hugging and sobbing as world champions.

"I do not know where I am," the stunned 27-year-old said while organisers hurried to set up the presentation stage on the pitch. "We cannot wait to lift the Cup and bring it back to France."

While waiting for the presentation Griezmann burst into tears, seemingly as the enormity of his team's achievement swept over him, and while a rainstorm soaked the Luzhniki arena, the player embraced French president Emmanuel Macron who kissed his forehead and clasped his shoulders.

Once the French had their hands on the coveted golden trophy, Griezmann grasped it and ran down to fans behind the goal to show them the World Cup, before skipping back along the side of the pitch holding it aloft.

And when he finally emerged from his on-pitch celebrations the tears had been replaced by a wide smile.

"Frankly I have not yet realised what we have done," he grinned after being named man-of-the-match.

"The World Cup... it's a lot... I am very proud of this team, the players, the coach, the staff. We were really a united group either on the bench or in the line-up. We did something incredible, we wrote history," he said, downplaying his individual role.

But certainly it had been a virtuoso performance by a player of undoubted talent who finally answered his doubters on the game's biggest stage.

He had stayed calm under pressure, unlocked the Croatian defence and been key to victory.

For now, though, he wanted to look forward.

"Now we will party and tomorrow we will party with France and with all the French people," he said, again breaking into an enormous grin.

"It is France we love. (We have) different origins but we are all united. We are many players with different backgrounds, but we have the same goal, we wear the same jersey, we work for each other.

David Beckham will be thinking of restaurants with delicious food as he won a friendly England versus Sweden bet against Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with the terms of the bet stating that if England beat Sweden in the quarter-final to book a place in the World Cup 2018 semi-final, Zlatan would be buying dinner for Beckham where ever he wants in the world.

England defeated Sweden 2-0 in their quarter final match of the World Cup—courtesy of goals from Harry Maguire and Dele Alli and booked a place in the semi-finals of the tournament.

The two former Paris Saint-Germain team mates entered into a wager ahead of the quarter-final clash between England and Sweden. Ibrahimovic was the one who initiated the bet through social media and Beckham also responded promptly.

Ibrahimovic vowed to take ex-England skipper Beckham out for a meal at any restaurant in the world if he found himself on the losing side.

That promise was countered by Beckham that Ibrahimovic could pick any item he wanted from Ikea if the Three Lions came unstuck.

As Gareth Southgate’s side continued their impressive run in the World Cup 2018 and came over Sweden after a comfortable 2-0 victory, Beckham can start readying himself for a delicious treat. However, Ibrahimovic would now have to join Beckham at an England game, wearing an England shirt and indulge in an English delicacy at the interval, as per the terms of the bet.

Ibrahimovic is yet to comment on the bet since full-time, but he did express his enormous admiration for the players who reached the quarter-finals.

“Every player should get a golden ball in Sweden,” Ibrahimovic tweeted. “What they did will be remembered forever. Thank you for the show.”

It was the first time that Video Referee Assistant (VAR) technology was used in a World Cup final but controversial refereeing decsions ensured that a spectacle of the calibre of the final might have been marred by inconsistencies.

Argentine referee Nestor Pitana, who was also took charge of the first match played between Russia and Saudi Arabia was handed the duty to bring the curtain down on the showpiece event.

Both France’s opener and their second goal which handed them the lead in the second half were controversial in their own rights.

The first goal would follow after Antoine Griezmann was fouled outside the area. Griezmann looked to shimmy his way past Marcelo Brozovic, perhaps going down easily under the midfielder's attentions to set up a set piece in a very dangerous area. Replays looked unconvincing as Griezmann looked like he either accidentally tripped himself or went down against minimum contact.

VAR did not intervene due to the guidelines which suggests that it should only intervene in case of goals, penalties, direct red cards and mistaken identity. It was not a penalty or a red card incident so VAR did not intervene.

Controversy followed the actual scoring of the goal as well after Mario Mandzukic had scored the first ever own goal in a World Cup final. French midfielder Paul Pogba appeared to be in an offside position when Mandzukic headed into his own net.

The Croatia forward had jumped higher than Pogba and interfered with the play. Notably former Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas had his say on the matter over twitter.

“Honestly, I do not understand the use of VAR very well,” Casillas wrote.

“The referee points to a foul that wasn’t on Griezmann and France’s goal comes from that action and nothing happens.”

Uruguay and Barcelona striker Luis Suarez agreed with the former Real Madrid goalkeeper and wrote: You are right Iker and Paul Pogba was offside when he ‘participates’ in the play.

While the controversies in the first goal may get overlooked, it was France’s second goal ten minutes before half-time which might have changed the tide of the match after Croatia had fought back with a equalizer from Ivan Perisic.

Blaise Matuidi went up for a near-post header, but missed the nod-on. Instead, the ball landed near the defending Perisic's arm, prompting wild gesticulations from French players, pleading for a handball. The ball went out of bounds and was originally ruled a goal kick for Croatia, but the officials decided to use the VAR to check the play.

The referee put his finger to his ear, and after what felt like an eternity, signalled that he would consult the VAR. Whether it was deliberate, or whether Perisic's hand was in an unnatural position was not clear, even after repeated viewing of the incident.

Even when he appeared to come to a decision, the referee quickly spun on the spot and returned to the screen for one quick look before awarding a penalty to France from which Griezmann scored.

It looked highly unlikely that it was a case of deliberate handball and might have even been a case of ball to hand.

Alan Shearer led the criticism of the refree while talking at the BBC studio, claiming Pitana’s decision-making had been “ridiculous” and that both pivotal decisions were, in his opinion, wrong.

“They’re losing this game to a free-kick that wasn’t a free-kick, and penalty that definitely wasn’t penalty,” Shearer said.

Jurgen Klinsmann agreed, while Rio Ferdinand added: “Two bad decisions have really turned this game on its head.”

It was the biggest game in the biggest showpiece event in the world. A game which should have been lit up by the footballing excellence of the participating teams. In a way, that probably was the case. France had the most talented squad in the tournament and they managed to showcase their abilities. However, football is a crazy game where moments can decide the outcome of a match and before the second France goal, Croatia were looking like the better side. Whatever the result, maybe controversies should not lead discussions in the aftermath of such an important game, which is what happened after the final.

Ivan Rakitic is hoping this Croatia team can go a step further after matching the country’s heroes of 1998 by making it to the semi-finals of the World Cup.

Barcelona midfielder Rakitic scored the decisive spot-kick as Croatia beat Russia 4-3 on penalties after a dramatic quarter-final in Sochi on Saturday finished 2-2 at the end of extra-time.

“We worked so hard and gave everything we had to get through to the semis. I think for a country like Croatia it is impressive and we want to keep going further,” said Rakitic.

“We want to enjoy this victory and not put more pressure on ourselves with what happened in 1998 -- what they did was impressive but we want to keep writing our own history and enjoy what we are doing which is very positive.”

Croatia will play England in the last four in Moscow on Wednesday, as they aim to outdo the team of 20 years ago. Back then they lost to hosts France in the last four.

“I hope we can outdo them. Their generation are more than heroes for us,” added Rakitic.

Croatia came from behind in Sochi with Andrej Kramaric cancelling out Denis Cheryshev’s opener as the tie ended 1-1 after 90 minutes.

Domagoj Vida then headed Zlatko Dalic’s side in front in extra time, only for Mario Fernandes to make it 2-2 in the 115th minute.

However, Rakitic ensured that Croatia prevailed in the shoot-out, their second in a row after beating Denmark on penalties in the last round.

They must recover quickly from a draining night before facing England, who were 2-0 winners over Sweden earlier on Saturday.

“We enjoy playing against big teams as we showed against Argentina,” insisted defender Dejan Lovren.

“England are one of the favourites to win the World Cup and you need to respect that, but we have nothing to lose. We will enjoy this game and hopefully we can make history.”

Lovren added that he was confident right-back Sime Vrsaljko would recover from the muscle injury that forced him off in extra-time against Russia.

Brazil midfielder Paulinho said that the 2-1 defeat against Belgium in their quarter-final match of the World Cup 2018 is harder to take than the 7-1 humiliation handed by Germany in World Cup 2014.

 In 2014, World Cup hosts Brazil were crushed 7-1 by Germany, who went on to win the title. All the Brazil fans around the world were hoping the Selecao would achieve the ultimate glory this time in Russia to put the haunting memories of the 2014 World Cup humiliation behind them. But a 2-1 loss to Belgium saw Tite's men eliminated in the quarter-finals on Friday, four years on from a last-four defeat.

Paulinho, who was a part of the Brazil team that faced a humiliating defeat against Germany in World Cup 2014, was also a member of the side that saw their hopes crushed by Belgium in this edition of the football extravaganza.

 As reported by Goal.com, Paulinho compared both the defeat and according to the 29-year old midfielder, the latest loss against Belgium in the quarter-final of the tournament is harder to take.

“For me, they were both difficult,” Paulinho said in a television interview. “A very complicated 2014, but this one is harder.”

The midfielder added: “The way we left, we were fighting until the last second, in a match when we were all over them.”

Meanwhile, Brazil forward Gabriel Jesus, who had a disappointing World Cup as he could not find the back of the net in the tournament despite starting in all five World Cup games for the Selecao, voiced his disappointment over his lack of goals after the match.

 “It’s frustrating. I worked a lot. It’s hard. You give up a lot of things to get to such a big tournament. Everyone knows it’s a dream.

“Right there after the debut, it became an obsession.” Jesus said.