Luka Modric and his midfield partner Ivan Rakitic dominated France

In the end, even the best player at this World Cup couldn't quite swing the odds back in Croatia's favour. Too much went against them - too much they could do nothing about - that even the brilliant Luka Modric couldn't save his country.

In the tunnel beforehand the little playmaker set his face in stern focus. He knew - at this age - that this was the only shot he was going to get at this.

By full-time, another sapping 90 minutes of football had taken its toll and he sank to the ground. There would be no perfect ending to what has been an almost perfect tournament for the Real Madrid star.

This was a strange way to lose 4-2. Normally that scoreline represents something convincing but here it didn't. France scored a goal from a set piece that could have been ruled offside, a penalty that should not have been given and then from two shots from outside the penalty area.

These were the shots that blew the Croatian house down on an early evening in Russia that saw Croatia spend much more time in the French half of the field than we would have imagined before kick-off.

Modric and Ivan Rakitic were always going to provide stern opposition for the French midfield pair of Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante and for long periods this was the way it went.

Chelsea's Kante was taken off before the hour. Maybe was injured or unwell but regardless this had not been his day. Pogba, meanwhile, garnished a good World Cup with a lovely goal from 20 yards and he has earned his place in history. He too, though, did not have everything his own way here against this energetic and industrious Croatia team.

Modric endeavoured to set the tone for his team from the start. For all the little Croatian's creative gifts - for all that he can see passes and create angles and play long and short - his work when the opposition have the ball is among the most impressive things that he does.

Here in the humid, cloying conditions of the Luzhniki, he began as though the three extra-time games he had played in the previous ten days or so had already been flushed from his system. In the very first minute he hounded down Samuel Umtiti on the edge of the French penalty area. Then, a minute later, Lucas Hernandez got the same treatment as Croatia's captain led his team's press from the front.

On both occasions, Modric fouled his opponent, even though the second decision seemed marginal. But that didn't really matter. It was the tone that Modric set for his team that was important while his actions sent a clear message top France too. Croatia were not here to roll over.

For the first 45 minutes we did not see the best of Modric or indeed his midfield partner Rakitic but they were always on the fringes, always ready to make a definitive contribution. It was an engrossing game but it was bitty, too, with referee Nestor Pitana happy to interrupt the flow with constant whistling for infrigements.

Even so, with Croatia lively, Pogba and Kante were busy. Much of the play was centred in the middle of the field and at times the two Frenchmen were struggling to get a grip. This turned out to be the key moment of the game for France. They were struggling and being dominated in the midfield but, crucially, they didn't concede. It was indeed a complete surprise when they scored first.

Both Kante and Pogba have had good tournaments but this was a difficult evening for them early on. Kante was struggling to keep track of Croatia's inventive midfield passers while Pogba, as is often the case, was not having a good time whenever the ball was in the air.

On one occasion when Marcelo Brozovic flicked the ball past him in the Croatian half, Pogba stopped as he began to chase him and merely threw his hands in the air. That is not the kind of reaction that wins players a World Cup. Worse was to come for the two French players, too.

In the defensive chaos that contributed to Croatia's equaliser in the 28th minute, Pogba failed to win a header and then Kante as left flat-footed by the wonderful Ivan Perisic. Kante had also given the free-kick away by fouling Perisic in the first place, an act for which he was booked.

So in what was very much a frantic, hurly-burly World Cup final, two of the players tasked with introducing a little calm in to the proceedings were not really managing it.

In to the second half little changed early on as Rakitic got away to free Ante Rebic, the stinging shot that followed being tipped over the bar by Hugo Lloris. Within ten minutes of that, Kante was gone - taken off by his manager and replaced by Steven N'Zonzi. It seemed a strange substitution and it was tempting to wonder if Kante was struggling in the cloying conditions.

With France in the lead but not in the ascendancy in terms of possession or territory as the hour mark arrived, the game was only growing in importance for Pogba. France were always dangerous on the break, though, and it turned out that Pogba's big moment was to come at the other end of the field.

He was a little lucky to get another chance after swiping rather at his first shot. But when the ball came back to him there was a calmness and surety about the way that he caressed the ball past the wrong-footed Danijel Subasic with his left foot.

That, of course, should have been that. When Kylian Mbappe scored his team's fourth with 20 minutes left, we should really have been turning the lights out. But this World Cup has been full of surprises from the moment Russia scored five on opening day and Lloris' error soon after injected some life back in to Croatian legs.

Even for them, the mountain left to climb was just too big. It wasn't that Modric and his band of brothers ran of legs, they just ran out of luck. In football, both happenings will be enough to bring you down.