France won the cup, Croatia won hearts (Video)

FIFA Football World Cup 2018 Winner France defeating Croatia 4-2 in an epic final in Moscow bringing curtains down. Not surprisingly, the epic match resulted in a deluge of memes, contributing to the FIFA frenzy on Twitter. Moreover, while many commemorated France’s win, others also appreciated Croatia for their performance in this World Cup.

Truly, madly, deeply. We will miss this World Cup like no other. The day after Bastille Day France are champions and deservedly so. But only after the most remarkable, crazy and controversial encounter against a courageous Croatia in which there was a VAR storm, and an actual storm in the skies above Moscow, a first-ever own goal in a World Cup Final, a cool strike from a new global superstar, an horrific goalkeeping blunder by the man who lifted the trophy - and a Pussy Riot pitch invasion.

To secure its status as the best ever World Cup the tournament needed a memorable final. It got it. What a finale it was to this 31-day festival of football, as Gareth Southgate called it, and it was the highest-scoring final since England beat West Germany 4-2 in 1966. Well, they sang football’s coming home. At least the score was the same and while England and their fans will never stop dreaming of what might have been - just 22 minutes from the final, if anyone needed reminding - France have the 18-carat gold, 14-inch, 11lb trophy for the second time ever and the second time in 20 years.

Didier Deschamps was their captain then and he is their coach now and became only the third man - after Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer and Brazil’s Mario Zagallo - to achieve that astonishing feat and for that his place in the pantheon of French football is secured.

Not that the former midfielder has always been loved and this triumph is a victory for his dogged, determined approach in overhauling the squad that lost the final of Euro 2016 - with 14 new faces - but also reverting to a more disciplined and pragmatic approach which meant shackling some of their extraordinary attacking talents. He did it his way and the danger for the rest of the world is that this is an extremely young squad - the second youngest ever (at 25 years and 10 months) after Brazil in 1970 to win the World Cup - and one that may get even better. They were the best in Russia.

As the World Cup was presented the storm broke, the heavens opened and it poured down. Not that anything was going to dampen French celebrations. From Russia with love. What a World Cup this has been and, rightly, it ends with worthy winners.