World Cup final preview | Youthful, energetic French vs experienced Croats

Sunday, 11:00 p.m.
France v Croatia
H 2, D 3.34, A 5

A World Cup of surprises concludes with a final of contrasts. Powered by the dynamism of Kylian Mbappe, France has youthful exuberance in a side packed with some of soccer’s highest-value talent. It also has pedigree — winners in 1998 and finalists in 2006.

Croatia has a veteran roster that has been stretched to the limit but continues to win in Russia. The Croats never give in, prevailing in a shootout against Denmark, again on penalties against Russia — after being stung by a late equalizer — and then recovering from conceding early against England.

Just don’t suggest Croatia will be weary in Sunday’s final when it returns to the Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday.

Croatia’s star midfielder Luka Modric said “we will see who will be tired” was the team ethos going into Wednesday’s semifinal, feeling Croatia had been under-estimated by the English.

Modric, along with Mario Mandzukic, are the 32-year-olds who have propelled Croatia to its first major soccer final. In the previous four World Cups: Croatia failed to qualify in 2010 and was ousted in the group stage the other three occasions.

Before then, in its World Cup debut in 1998, Croatia did reach the semifinals, where it lost to France.

When Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic visited the team hotel in Moscow on Wednesday that 1998 game was on his mind — even before beating England.

“We might have the chance for the revenge in the finals with the French,” Plenkovic said.

Now they get it.

Croatia advanced to its first World Cup final with a 2-1 extra-time win over England on Wednesday night. France beat Belgium 1-0 a night earlier.

“We have a good opportunity to give them something back for 20 years ago when they reached the final,” Croatia defender Dejan Lovren said. “Maybe it’s our time to revenge something but it’s a tough game and it will be difficult.”

A country of 65 million, France has stars like 19-year-old sensation Mbappe, midfielder Paul Pogba and striker Antoine Griezmann.

Croatia is the fourth-smallest country of the 32 World Cup teams with just over 4 million people. It has a chance to be the least-populous nation to win since Uruguay took the title in 1950, when it was a nation of just over 2 million.

Saturday, 10:00 p.m.
Belgium v England
H 2.25, D 3.8, A 3.35

England and Belgium have already played each other once in this tournament — a lackluster 1-0 Belgium win in a game both coaches stuffed with reserve players since they’d already qualified for the knockout stage. England coach Gareth Southgate all but conceded he wanted to lose that one so as to avoid a harder route to the semifinal, and his strategy worked, right up until Croatia’s Mario Mandzukic beat England ‘keeper Jordan Pickford in the 109th minute.

Now England and Belgium meet again in the match no one wants to play in. That’s exactly what Southgate and England captain Harry Kane called it immediately after losing to Croatia, using terms that losers of past World Cup semifinals have tossed around too.

“It’s not the game we wanted to be in. I’m sure Belgium didn’t want to be in it,” Kane said. “But it’s a game that’s part of the World Cup. […] so we’ll put in that performance and give it the best we can.”

Conventional wisdom holds that Belgium and England will send out the second string again, play a minimum of defense and try to avoid getting any of their high-priced players hurt right before their club seasons begin.

But the third-place match can hold some surprises: The record for the fastest goal in World Cup history still belongs to Turkey’s Hakan Sukur, who buried one 11 seconds into the third-place game against South Korea in 2002. MDT/AP