The 2018 World Cup brought VAR, a German collapse and a teenage Mbappé
At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, defending champions Germany failed to get past the group phase, something that had not happened to them since 1938. Video assistant referees made their World Cup debut, and a 19-year-old Kylian Mbappé scored in the final, only the second teenager after Pelé to do so, as France beat Croatia 4–2.
The 21st World Cup ran from 14 June to 15 July 2018, with 32 teams playing 64 matches in 12 stadiums across 11 cities. For the first time, every eligible FIFA member applied to enter qualifying. Iceland and Panama made their debuts, Iceland becoming the smallest nation by population ever to reach the finals. At an estimated cost of over 14.2 billion dollars, it was the most expensive World Cup to that point, until Qatar four years later.
The IFAB wrote video assistant referees into the laws of the game in March 2018, and FIFA quickly approved them for the tournament. Every match was monitored from a single hub in Moscow that received live feeds and spoke to on-field referees by radio, with replays shown on stadium screens so fans could follow decisions. Separately, a Saudi referee and his two assistants were removed before the tournament over a match-fixing attempt.
The hosts reached the quarter-finals. In the final at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium, France claimed their second title, and Europe won a record fourth straight World Cup after Italy, Spain and Germany. Croatia's Luka Modrić took the Golden Ball as best player, England's Harry Kane the Golden Boot with six goals, and Belgium's Thibaut Courtois the Golden Glove. More than 3 million people attended matches.
The road there was rocky. Russia won the hosting vote in Zürich in December 2010, and the process drew corruption allegations, an FBI investigation, and a FIFA investigator who resigned in protest after his report was summarised in a way he called materially incomplete.
Source: 2018 FIFA World Cup
