Stats can tell you everything you need to know about a game and they can tell you absolutely nothing about the same game. If you need any proof of that there's no France players in the statistical World Cup.
To most of us there's little doubt that France deserved to win the World Cup, the first piece of evidence was the fact that they won the final against Croatia.
Some people, Graeme Souness chief among them, was trying to argue that a contentious penalty and a soft free kick meant that they hadn't deserved to win the game but, other than Ivan Perisic's goal, the losing finalists barely troubled Hugo Lloris, with their second goal coming from the France goalkeeper troubling himself.
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Croatia did have 66% possession in the final and 14 shots, which was seven more than France, but the winners ended up with more on target and importantly more in the goal, plus they set out to have less possession, as they did in the semi-final against Belgium.
So stats are basically useless is what we're saying? Good. Because according to Whoscored.com, the masters of the stat, no France player is good enough to make it into the Team of the Tournament:
Top goalscorer Harry Kane being in the side is hardly a surprise but he isn't flanked by any of the men in joint second place.
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Romelu Lukaku, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe all finished off the tournament with four goals each, two behind the Golden Boot winner, but they all fail to make the side, with Eden Hazard teaming with Kane instead.
Kevin de Bruyne, Luka Modric and Kieran Trippier all had brilliant tournaments, although the latter probably should be in at right back not right wing, but Neymar will have many people questioning his inclusion.
The Brazilian scored twice and got one assist but spent more time on the ground than he did making an impact of games.
In defence Yerry Mina and Andreas Granqvist both got on the scoresheet a couple of times so it's not too surprising to see their names in the team.
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Mario Fernandes had a very good World Cup as Russia exceeded all expectations but Marcelo didn't really feel like he had a great impact.
In goal Kasper Schmeichel did save Luka Modric's penalty in the second round, and two others in the shoot-out, but it does feel like Danjiel Subasic, Thibaut Courtois, Jordan Pickford and Lloris had better tournaments than him.
Who makes your team of the tournament?
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football News, Croatia, World Cup news, World Cup, France