World Cup 2018: A French success story
20 years after the Deschamps’ mates won the first French World Cup, today’s team made France very happy again. Although the French team was quite criticised during the whole competition for their style of playing, it blossomed into something very effective.
The final game vs. Croatia was quite an interesting one, and Kylian Mbappé, the 19 year-old new star, showed the World he can have a very successful career. Let’s now have a look at the upcoming years. The last teams that won the World Cup were kicked out after the first round 4 years later. Will France confirm that trend in 2022?
Come on Belgium!
While the French expats were under pressure ahead of the final game yesterday, thousands of Belgians popped down at Grand Place to celebrate the Red devils’ performance. Although they were defeated by France in the semi-finals, they showcased a very attractive football play during the whole competition by coming third and showed that the ‘Golden generation’ is scared of no one. It is now up to them to confirm their level in two years, for the UEFA Euro Cup.
What about the favourite teams?
The 2018 World Cup has been a very special one. The most successful teams in the history of football (Brazil, Germany, Argentina and Italy of course) have indeed failed. For the first time in the history of the World Cups, no country among Brazil, Argentina and Germany participated in the semi-finals.
The outsiders progressed rather well, as Belgium and England were only eliminated in the semi-finals and Croatia qualified for the final game.
And the top-players?
Have you had a look at the “Ballon d’Or” ranking 2017? Cristiano Ronaldo (1st), Lionel Messi (2nd) and Neymar (3rd) were supposed to lead their national teams to the last games. But they all failed.
Portugal was defeated by Uruguay in the Round of 16, as well as Argentina (vs. France). While everyone expected so much from Neymar, his credibility was sullied due to all the dives he did during the cup.
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