After Ferenc Puskas, Zoltan Czibor, Gerd Muller, and Zinedine Zidane, Mandzukic became the sixth player to score in both the World Cup and the European Cup/Champions League finals. The final result of the match was France 4, Croatia 2. At the end of the second half, France led Croatia 4-2. In the 93rd minute, Kylian Mbappe scored a beautiful goal to make it 5-2 for France. In the last 10 minutes of the game, Mario Mandzukic got another goal to make it 6-2 for France.
The game took place on July 9, 2018. France won its third title of the year. This is also its fourth world cup win overall. Croatia was eliminated after one round of matches. This is also its first world cup loss.
Mandzukic is a Croatian football player who plays as a striker for French club Paris Saint-Germain and the Croatia national team. He has been called the "spiritual successor" to Puskas because of his scoring prowess in front of goal. Before joining PSG, he played for Juventus and Bayern Munich.
In international play, Mandzukic has over 100 caps with Croatia and has scored 52 goals. He made his international debut on 14 August 2008 against Israel and scored his first goal on 26 October 2008 in a friendly match against the United States.
Three different players have scored in four consecutive finals events. Pele of Brazil and Uwe Seeler of West Germany each scored in the finals in 1958, 1962, 1966, and 1970, while German Miroslav Klose scored in 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014.
More than 1,250 male footballers have scored goals in men's World Cup final events since the first goal was scored by French player Lucien Laurent at the 1930 FIFA World Cup, with just 97 scoring five or more. Miroslav Klose has the most goals for a male player, with 16.
Robert Prosinecki (who was awarded the 1990 FIFA World Cup Best Young Player Award for his performance for Yugoslavia) also scored two goals in matches against Jamaica and the Netherlands, making him the only player in World Cup history to score goals in final tournaments for two different countries.
He was the first player to score four goals in a World Cup game, in Poland's 6-5 loss to Brazil; his record was later equaled by numerous players, but it was only 56 years later, in the 1994 World Cup, that he was surpassed. The FIFA World Cup was supposed to be held in 1942. However, due to the involvement of Germany in World War II, that year's tournament was cancelled.
The first World Cup was played between England and Uruguay. England won 3-1 thanks to two goals from Jack Wilson and one from Charlie Buchan. The match was held in three cities: London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Here are the men who have scored four goals in a World Cup game:
Johan Cruyff (Holland) in a 5-4 win over East Germany on June 16, 1988.
Ronaldo (Brazil) in a 6-5 loss to Poland on July 1, 1989.
Marco van Basten (Netherlands) in a 4-3 win over South Korea on June 25, 1990.
Peter Schmeichel (Denmark) in a 2-1 win over Ecuador on June 15, 1993.
Robbie Fowler (England) in a 5-3 win over Sweden on June 23, 1994.
Along with Pele and German striker Uwe Seeler, he became the third player to score in four World Cups. However, Thomas Muller's record might be jeopardized this year. Ronaldo, one of the greatest strikers of all time, was at his peak at the 2002 World Cup, scoring eight goals and leading Brazil to victory.
The most recent player to do so was Justin Meram in 2015. He scored a goal in the opening match of the tournament against Germany and also found the net in the next two games against Portugal and Argentina.
Meram is only the fifth player to score in three consecutive World Cups since 1966 when they were awarded the same number of points (3). The others are Pele, Muller, Cristiano Ronaldo and Justin Meram.
Cruyff was also the player who created the most opportunities (36) and completed the most passes in the final third of the game at the 1974 World Cup (136). - paraphrasing formalized Cruyff scored more goals for the Dutch national team while captain than any other player (23). - paraphrasing formalized Cruyff won the league four times, all with Barcelona. He also led his team to victory in the European Cup twice.
Cruyff passed away in March 2014 at the age of 68 after suffering from brain cancer. He remains one of the greatest players in world football history.
Besides playing football, Cruyff had a huge impact on the development of soccer throughout the world by creating new styles of play that have become commonplace today. He can even be said to have invented modern soccer because of his innovative ideas about how the game should be played. For example, he is credited with introducing the role of the "sweeper-keeper" by asking players to mark their opponents carefully so that they could be given freedom of movement later in the game.
Cruyff also changed the way the World Cup is viewed by the public. Before his arrival at the World Cup, most people thought it was an event where countries fought each other in a series of matches until only two were left. But thanks to Cruyff, the World Cup started being seen as a single match between two competing teams who both try to win.
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