THE final of the 2018 FIFA World Cup was played on July 15 in Moscow between Croatia and France, which was won by the latter by 4-2.

Although the Croatians lost, they won the hearts of hundreds of millions of people around the world because of their unexpected excellent show throughout the tournament.

The Croatian team nicknamed Vatreni meaning Fiery Boys in Croatian and sometimes also called Kockasti (The Chequereds) denoting their team uniform beat very strong and favourite teams at every stage of the knock-out matches, till the Kockasti’s first defeat in the final of the world cup.

This world cup final augurs well for the future of football among other nations of the world. Croatia finishing as runners-up of a football world cup final shows the path for other sporting nations particularly in South and West Asia.

Abdul Samad
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2018