
The World Cup is over. We should be looking ahead to a new Premier League season but, instead, we find ourselves casting our minds back to the month-long footballing feast that gripped the world. France won the tournament, Croatia won the hearts and minds of the public and England won over some doubters. There were shocks, too. Germany fell at the first hurdle while Spain fell to Russia. Overall,...

Didier Deschamps, meet Sean Dyche, because France Burnley’d their way to World Cup victory. This, the World Cup final, was a nonsense game. You can set your team up however you like, but there are some things you can’t legislate much for: own goals, dubious VAR-assisted calls, goalkeepers getting caught at the back, two snap-shots going in. Usually, goals happen infrequently in football. One team...

France, for the second time in their history, have won the World Cup, beating Croatia 4-2 in the Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday. Twenty years ago, Zinedine Zidane stepped up to become his country’s hero, scoring twice against Brazil in the Stade de France. Through the 90 minutes in Moscow, Les Bleus discovered new heroes all across the pitch. Antoine Griezmann’s free-kick was headed into his own...