World Cup final: France and Croatia name unchanged line-ups as Kylian Mbappe starts

Croatia's players had a day less time to recover after their extra-time winner over England

Jack Austin
Sunday 15 July 2018 15:30 BST
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France v Croatia: World Cup Final match preview

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Both France and Croatia have named unchanged sides from those who won their respective semi-final victories for Sunday's World Cup final in Moscow.

Kylian Mbappe will continue to start from the right with Antoine Griezmann backing up Chelsea's Olivier Giroud, who is named as the lone striker by Didier Deschamps despite being yet to score a goal in Russia.

Blaise Matuidi will again begin on the left to offer more defensive support, with the impressive duo of Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante going up against Croatia's so-far dominant midfield of Ivan Rakitic, Luka Modric and Marcelo Brozovic.

Follow all the action from France vs Croatia in Moscow here

Sime Vrsaljko has shaken off a knock to his knee that saw him withdrawn against England on Wednesday and Ivan Perisic, who scored the equaliser and set up the winner in that game, calms any fears that he was going to miss the game by starting from the left.

Croatia had one day less than France to recover from their semi-final exploits and fatigue could be a factor as they were taking to extra-time for the third consecutive game, meaning they have played 60 minutes more than their opponents en route to the final.

France XI: Lloris, Pavard, Varane, Umtiti, Hernandez, Pogba, Kante, Matuidi, Griezmann, Giroud, Mbappe.

Croatia XI: Subasic, Vrsaljko, Strinic, Lovren, Vida, Rakitic, Modric, Brozovic, Perisic, Mandzukic, Rebic.

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