France have been surprised by the physical fortitude of Croatia and are not expecting a tired opponent in Sunday’s World Cup final.
Croatia have been forced into extra time in each of their three knockout matches, edging Denmark and hosts Russia on post-match penalties.
They also scored late in added play to come from behind and beat England in Wednesday’s semi-final in Moscow.
France by contrast have won all of their matches since the round of 16 inside 90 minutes, effectively playing a full match less than Croatia at the tournament in Russia.
But Matuidi said he did not think the Croats would be fatigued by their added time on the pitch over the last week.
The 31-year-old, who said it would be his last World Cup, predicted an exciting final with a high level of expertise.
Meanwhile, Argentinian referee, Nestor Pitana, with his assistants, Hernan Maidana and Juan Belatti, will officiate the final match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the World football governing body announced on Thursday.
Pitana has already handled four matches at the ongoing Mundial, beginning with the opening game between Russia and Saudi Arabia as well as the Group F tie between Mexico and Sweden. The 43-year-old Physical Education teacher also handled the Round of 16 encounter between Croatia and Denmark as well as the quarter-final fixture between Uruguay and France.
Pitana is the second Argentinian referee to participate in two World Cup championships after Norberto Coerezza, who oversaw two games in 1970 and one in 1978. After Horacio Elizondo in 2006, he becomes the second Argentinian referee to officiate a World Cup Final.
Pitana, who has been an international referee since 2010, is one of South America’s most experienced referees and also has a playing experience at youth level.
Three games at the U-17 FIFA World Cup in 2013 preceded a call-up the following year for the World Cup in Brazil.
He was in charge of four fixtures, including France versus Germany in the quarter-finals.
In 2015, he was called up for his first, and so far only, Copa America, in addition to handling River Plate versus Huracan in the final match of the Supercopa Argentina.
Pitana returned to Brazil in 2016 for the Olympic Football Tournament, where he was the man in the middle for the semifinal between Germany and Nigeria.
In 2017 he took charge of the FIFA Confederations Cup semifinal fixture between Germany and Mexico.
Sunday’s match will see Maidana as the Assistant Referee One (AR1), while Belatti is the Second Assistant Referee (AR2).
Bjorn Kuipers of The Netherlands is the game’s Fourth Official, while his compatriot, Erwin Zeinstra, is the Reserve Assistant Referee .
Already, Alireza Faghani of Iran has been picked to handle the Belgium versus England fixture in the third-place match of Saturday in St.
Petersburg.
His compatriots, Reza Sokhandan and Mohammadreza Mansouri will work with him as AR1 and AR2 respectively.
The Senegalese duo of Malang Diedhiou and Djibril Camara will serve as the Fourth Official and RAR respectively.
