The final of the 2018 World Cup will be contested on Sunday as France v Croatia betting is the final stop on the summer tournament. Who will be crowned champions? Will it be France winning it for the second time in their career after a comfortable ride in the knockout stages.
Or will it be underdogs Croatia? The Croats have faced some tough situations in the knockout stages to reach their first ever World Cup Final. Who has enough on the day to get over the line?
Here were take a look at Trends for your World Cup Final 2018 betting
France v Croatia Winner Odds*
France 10/11
Draw 23/10
Croatia 4/1
* (betting odds were taken from July 12th, 2018 at 10:37 pm)
Under/Over 2.5 Goals
You would have to side with a low scoring game cropping up between these two. All but one of the last seven World Cup Finals have finished under the goal line so that is a pretty big trend to ride. More often than not the weight of the occasion imitates natural risk that teams would normally take.
You can take that a little further as well because you will see that four of the last seven World Cup Finals have actually produced one goal or less in them. Something that adds to the likelihood of this being a low scoring World Cup Final is the fact that all three of Croatia’s knockout stage matches were under 2.5 goals at 90 minutes and two of France’s three went that way as well.
France v Croatia To Lift The Trophy Odds*
France 4/9
Croatia 7/4
* (betting odds were taken from July 12th, 2018 at 10:37 pm)
Both Teams To Score
The trend is to go with this not happening in the World cup Final. Just once since Italia ’90 have both teams scored in a World Cup Final (seven matches) so history, at least recent history of World Cup Finals would suggest that Both Teams NOT To Score would be the way to go which is at 6/11 with Sportingbet* (betting odds were taken from July 12th, 2018 at 10:37 pm). France have taken four clean sheets in six games at Russia 2018.
Extra Time
There has been a trend of extra time as well in World Cup Finals as each of the last three editions have needed a further 30 minutes to settle the occasion. The last two have been settled in extra time with Spain beating the Netherlands in 2010 and Germany getting past Argentina four years later. You can back Extra Time happening at 9/4 with Sportingbet* (betting odds were taken from July 12th, 2018 at 10:37 pm). Just two of the last six World Cup Finals have been settled in 90 minutes, one of those being France’s win over Brazil in 1998.
Semi Final Stadium
Interestingly, it has not been all that often that the venue of the final has also hosted a semi-final at the same tournament. This happened this year with the Croatia v England game being hosted in Moscow. Of the eight times that this has previously happened, the winner of the semi-final which was hosted at the same venue as the Final itself, went on to lift the trophy. So take that for what it’s worth, but that leans towards Croatia.
First Time Winners
What about how teams get on in their first ever World Cup Final? Well, France won their first ever World Cup Final appearance back in 1998 and then Spain in 2010 also lifted the title in their first ever World Cup Final. Germany did it in 1954, Italy did it in 1934, Uruguay did it in 1930 and England won it in 1966. So six of the eight previous World Cup winners got their first title on the board at the first time of asking. The only ones not to do it was Brazil, who won it on their second attempt in 1958 and Argentina who also won it at the second attempt. Again perhaps, more good news for Croatia.
Extra Time Extra Burden
Croatia had to get through the extra time in each of their knockout stage matches and they are not the first side to ever do that. They are the fourth team to progress through the knockout phase without settling a match in 90 minutes to get to the Final. The downside of that is none of the other three who managed to do that went on to win the Final that year.
All European Finals
A European nation taking on a European nation in the final of the World Cup is nothing new. The first time it happened though was in the second edition when Italy beat Czechoslovakia 2-1 after extra time. This will be the seventh occasion of UEFA v UEFA in the World Cup Final and the first since Italy v West Germany in 1982. Of those all-European meetings, both teams scored in 90 minutes in each of them five of the six went over 2.5 goals.
