Do not cry, beautiful Croatia!
All Russian daily newspapers write extensively about the final game of the World Cup and also bring expert opinion and comments from well-known football managers. Sport Express says on its front page “Long Live France, Long Live Russia”. The second headline is “Croatian Character Did Not Help Against France”. The journalist writes that Croatia played much more actively and courageously in the first half. It was pleasant to watch its play, unlike the French who mostly concentrated on their half of the pitch.
“Croatia was unlucky. The ball found its way to its goal from nothing. They received more goals than what they were supposed to. When Perišić played with his hand in the penalty area, the hero became an anti-hero. The goals by Pogba and Mbappe killed the intrigue and were the control goals,” says a Sport Express journalist who doubts whether Brozović made a foul on Griezman before the first goal, but at the same time points out that Croats had demonstrated an unforgiving spirit and surprising willpower during the tournament. The term “control goal” refers to the Russian crime scene. When a serial killer wants to be sure the victim will surely die, he comes closer and shoots him in the head. The journalist ends his article with, “With victory, strong France. Do not cry, beautiful Croatia!”
The Izvestia political daily published a large article on pages 2 and 3. It is a very serious newspaper which rarely covers sports on the first pages. In the article “Croatian Sensation”, the journalist writes that it was extremely important for Russia that Croatia played in the finals because it had a player from the Russian league in its team. Jury Syomin, the coach of Lokomotiv, says that he supported Croatia due to Ćorluka who was one of the starting eleven players for Croatia. The well-known manager emphasized that Croatia deserved to play in the finals, but had three extremely difficult matches with extra time before the finals. Nevertheless, Croatia presented itself in the best possible light!
Moskovskiy Komsomolets published the headline “Day of Conquest of Croatia” (like the Day of the conquest of Bastille), with French colours. The Sovietskiy Sport newspaper published the headline “@VAR killed the Croats@”, about the incident with Perišić and hand-play. The journalist describes the situation when girls from Pussy Riot ran on the pitch and one of them caught shocked Lovren by his hand. In the article headlined “Mbappe Broke Croatian Defence”, they explain that Croatia allowed easy goals, which were not a punishment, but a humiliation. “Mandžukić looked like a dragon when he scored his goal. Because of such a goal, fans usually ‘bury’ their goalkeeper, but the result was 4-1 and it was no tragedy,” concludes the journalist.
The second title in Sovietskiy Sport is “To Tears” and refers to the French victory and the downpour which marked the presentation ceremony, stressing that the sky was crying because the World Cup had ended.
Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović received the major attention of the Russian media. She is mentioned by almost all newspapers, as is her gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin – a Croatian jersey with number 9. Putin has already made a decision to extend the visa regime until 31 December to all those who have the FAN ID.
Many newspapers also write about friendly Croatian fans who did not cause any incidents. On the contrary, whenever they could, they sang to the hosts “Ru-si-a Spa-si-ba”, which delighted the Russians, and many of them, according to pundits, have already forgotten Vida’s gaffe from earlier in the tournament.
