Honestly, the 2018 World Cup Championship shouldn't have worked as well as it did. Russia was a controversial host, the favorites kept falling like dominos, and the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) system was supposed to ruin everything. Yet, somehow, we got the most chaotic, high-scoring, and genuinely weird month of football in recent memory. If you look back at that final in Moscow—France vs. Croatia—it was basically a microcosm of the whole tournament. A literal storm, a pitch invasion by Pussy Riot, an own goal, and Kylian Mbappé turning into a global superstar before he was even old enough to buy a drink in some countries.
It was wild.
People tend to forget how much pressure was on France. They had bottled the Euro 2016 final on home soil against a Ronaldo-less Portugal. They were the "talented but soft" team. But by the time they reached the Luzhniki Stadium on July 15, Didier Deschamps had turned them into a ruthless, counter-attacking machine. They didn't care about possession. They cared about destroying you in three passes.
The Chaos That Defined the 2018 World Cup Championship
The path to the 2018 World Cup Championship was littered with the carcasses of the old guard. Remember Germany? The defending champs? They finished bottom of a group with South Korea, Sweden, and Mexico. That was the first sign that 2018 was going to be a "vibes-based" tournament rather than a tactical masterclass. Then you had Argentina and Portugal both getting booted on the same day in the Round of 16. It felt like the sport was shifting right in front of our eyes.
Croatia, on the other hand, was the team that refused to die. They played three consecutive 120-minute matches leading up to the final. They basically played an extra full game of football compared to France. Luka Modrić was 32 at the time, and by the end of that tournament, he looked like he’d aged a decade, yet he still outran everyone. That’s why he won the Golden Ball. You can’t talk about 2018 without acknowledging that Croatia’s run was arguably the greatest underdog story in the history of the modern game, even if they fell short at the final hurdle.
France: The Efficiency of the Bleus
France wasn't always "fun" to watch in 2018. They were effective. They had N'Golo Kanté, who felt like he was actually three different people patrolling the midfield. Then you had Paul Pogba. In 2018, Pogba was exactly the player Manchester United fans always wished he’d be—disciplined, long-passing perfection, and a leader. His goal in the final was a left-footed strike that basically sealed the deal.
But let’s be real. The story was Mbappé.
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When he outran the entire Argentine defense in the Round of 16, it was a "passing of the torch" moment. Messi was on the pitch, but Mbappé was the one moving at a speed that didn't look biologically possible. He became the first teenager since Pelé to score in a World Cup final. That’s the level we’re talking about. Pelé level.
What People Get Wrong About the 2018 Final
Most people remember the 4-2 scoreline and think it was a blowout. It wasn't. For the first hour, Croatia was actually the better team. They had more of the ball, more shots, and more energy. France's first goal was a Mario Mandžukić own goal—the first ever in a World Cup final. Their second was a VAR-awarded penalty after a controversial handball by Ivan Perišić.
If those two moments go differently, we’re talking about a very different history.
There's a lot of debate among tacticians like Jonathan Wilson or the folks at The Athletic about whether France "deserved" it or just got lucky with a clinical clinical style. But football isn't about style points. Deschamps, who had won the trophy as a player in 1998, knew that. He didn't care if the world thought his team was boring. He wanted the gold. And he got it. France’s ability to absorb pressure and then let Mbappé and Griezmann loose was a masterclass in tournament management.
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The Infrastructure and the VAR Impact
2018 was the debut of VAR on the world stage. We all thought it would stop the arguments. Instead, it just gave us new things to scream about. The Perišić handball in the final is still debated in pubs across Zagreb today. It changed the tempo of the game. It’s also worth noting that the 2018 World Cup Championship set a record for goals scored from set-pieces. Why? Because VAR made defenders terrified of grabbing jerseys in the box.
The tournament was also a logistical success that surprised the Western media. The "Fan ID" system worked, the trains were free for fans, and the atmosphere in cities like Kazan and Samara was actually quite welcoming. It’s a complicated legacy now, given everything that has happened geopolitically since then, but in the vacuum of 2018, it felt like a peak moment for the sport's global reach.
The Lessons of 2018
What did we actually learn?
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First, the "Tiki-Taka" era died in Russia. Spain passed the ball over a thousand times against Russia in the Round of 16 and still lost. Possession for the sake of possession was officially declared dead. The 2018 trophy was won by a team that prioritized verticality—getting the ball from back to front as fast as humanly possible.
Second, squad depth is everything. France could afford to leave players like Karim Benzema (for non-football reasons) and Kingsley Coman at home and still look like the best team on the planet. Their B-team probably could have made the quarter-finals.
Actionable Insights for Football Historians and Fans
If you're looking back at this era to understand where football is going, keep these points in mind:
- Look at the Age Profiles: France's 2018 squad was one of the youngest to ever win. The trend of "younger is better" has only accelerated since then.
- Set-Piece Specialization: After 2018, teams started hiring specific set-piece coaches. The "Southgate" effect with England (who reached the semis) showed that you can go far just by being good at corners and free kicks.
- The "Low Block" Survival: Small nations learned that they could frustrate giants by sitting deep. Russia’s win over Spain is the blueprint for every underdog performance we've seen in the years following.
To really understand the 2018 World Cup Championship, you have to watch the highlights of France vs. Argentina and Belgium vs. Japan. Those two games captured the essence of the tournament: high-risk, high-reward, and completely unpredictable. 2018 wasn't about the "perfect" game. It was about who could survive the madness.
The next step for any serious fan is to compare the heat maps of the 2018 French midfield against the 2022 version. You’ll see a massive shift in how Deschamps adapted his "winning formula" to compensate for losing the Kanté-Pogba engine room. The 2018 win remains the gold standard for pragmatic, modern tournament football.