France beat Croatia 4-2 in the football World Cup final at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday, winning their second world title after 1998.

France went ahead in the 17th minute courtesy of an own goal from Croatia's Mario Mandzukic.

Croatia leveled 12 minutes later when Ivan Perisic blasted the ball past Hugo Lloris with a left-footed strike.

However, France again took the lead from a penalty when Croatia was penalised for handball in the 37th minute.

In the second half, France's Paul Pogba scored in the 59th minute and Kylian Mbappe in the 65th minute, and Mandzukic scored for Croatia four minutes later.

Croatia achieved their best result after placing third at the championship in France 20 years ago.

With a population of slightly above four million, Croatia is the second smallest country to have reached a World Cup final, after Uruguay, with an estimated population of 1.7 million, won the competition in 1930.

At 20th place in FIFA's world rankings, the Croatians were the lowest-ranked team to reach a World Cup final, and the 13th nation to do so.