World Cup 2018: 5 historic moments
The 2018 FIFA World Cup has finally come to an end, and France have established themselves as the World Champions for the second time in the country's history.
The 21st edition of the tournament was a treat for fans around the world and finally ended with a 6-goal game between France and Croatia.
The tournament will be remembered for many things. Penalties, own goals, late goals, and underdog wins were the trademarks of this year's World Cup.
Several records have been broken throughout the course of the tournament, seemingly smaller teams have knocked out powerhouses, players have scored awe-inspiring goals, and VAR has been the talk of the town.
This year's World Cup saw 169 goals being scored, with Harry Kane's 6 goals the most scored by any player. On the other hand, Thibaut Courtois made 27 saves, the highest number of saves in the 2018 World Cup, to win the Golden Glove.
This World Cup has also seen a number of historic moments. Here is a list of 5 historic moments at the 2018 World Cup.
#5 VAR PENALTY DECISIONS
France have a knack for creating history in the World Cup, and a lot of their historic moments seem to involve penalties.
On 19 July 1930, France became the first team to concede a penalty in the World Cup. French goalkeeper, Alex Thepot, saved the spot kick to become the first-ever goalkeeper to save a penalty in the World Cup.
Fast forward 88 years and France became the first team to be awarded a penalty kick via VAR. This was a historic moment as many had been apprehensive about the use of video referee in football. In France's match against Australia, Antoine Griezmann became the first player in the World Cup to score a penalty that was awarded after consultation with VAR.
VAR again came into play in the final match of the tournament, and again it was France that was in the thick of the action.