S.P. Read Esq: France v Croatia

Our daily columnist and pundit S.P. Read Esq. looks ahead to the World Cup Final between FRANCE v CROATIA and finds the best opportunities available on Star Spreads, the home of sports spread betting.

Like all good things, it must come to an end. We have had everything a World Cup could possibly ask for from beginning to end, and now we have the final as France take on Croatia in an all European showpiece.

For the French, there is a big feel of déjà vu as they’re in the final 20 years on from their famous triumph of 1998 which they so nearly repeated in the Euros only to fall at the last hurdle.

We’ve heard a lot of Golden Generations at this World Cup, but this Croatia side really are in their Golden Generation right now. Luka Modric, now just 9-4 to be voted as the player of the tournament, has been part of an elite midfield with Barcelona’s Ivan Raktic. Marcelo Brozovic has also been increasingly impressive whilst Ivan Perisic has provided width and guile out wide to boot.

Upfront, Mario Mandzukic and Ante Rebić have combined very well, with Mandzukic scoring two crucial goals through the knockout stages including the extra time winner that knocked out England, whilst Danijel Subašić has been exceptional against penalties and in goal.

Croatia were behind after just five minutes in the semi-final and found themselves overwhelmed for the first half, but a couple of fine saves from Subašić and missed chances from England kept them in the game and as the second half wore on, the influence of Modric and especially Raktic game kept them very much alive.

Whilst France will once again have another chance to bite the cherry, this is very much now or never for Croatia. Modric, defender Vedran Corluka and Mandzukic are 32, Rakitic and Ivan Strinic are both 30 and Perisic and Subasic are 29.

France, who have just five players over the age of 30, have been steadily building towards taking a big international tournament. Their group stage performances were disappointing for many but since making tactical adjustments Didier Deschamps has won the big tactical battles in the knockouts and they’ve looked much more like the side that were as short as 5/1 to win the tournament through the knockout stages with wins against Argentina, Uruguay, and Belgium.

Kylan Mbappe lit up their last 16 tie against Argentina but since then their defensive strategy has come to the fore with N’Golo Kante superb in midfield whilst the back four of Benjamin Pavard, Raphaël Varane, Samuel Umtiti and Lucas Hernández has been exceptional. After their end to end encounter against Argentina, they have very effectively shut out Uruguay and especially a Belgian side that had been freewheeling through the tournament.

This bodes well for them, as World Cup finals are always, tight, cagey games. Four of the last six have gone to extra time, both teams have scored in one of the last seven, six of those seven have been under 2.5 goals, and three of those six have had no goal scorer.

France look to have the advantage in defensive setup and also in terms of potential gamechangers here, although that said there is probably less between the two teams than the market suggests.

The advice is to buy the time of the first match goal at 45 minutes with Star Spreads.

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• Any spread prices quoted are indicative and as always prices are subject to fluctuation.
• Please note the opinion, views and forecasts above are of the author and not of Star Spreads.