Five things we learned from the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia

1 International football is alive and well
The World Cup started with the usual scaremongering about various issues in the host country and how Russia would disgrace themselves off the pitch and also on it. But now it will rightly go down as one of the best global tournaments.

There is a difference in standard between the best club sides and international football, but nothing can match the pure joy of a World Cup summer and there was entertainment and drama night after night.

Cristiano Ronaldo's hat-trick against Spain on the second night set the tournament alight and the theatre kept coming.

Argentina's crisis before saving themselves with a dramatic winner to see off Nigeria; Germany crashing out; England triumphing in a World Cup penalty shootout at long last; Spain losing a penalty shootout; Russia's joy; Russia's heartbreak; Belgium beating Brazil in the highest-quality match of the tournament and then a six-goal final.

2 Set-pieces have become even more important
Possibly with the help of VAR, referees seem to be less tolerant of holding at corners and free kicks which could give more opportunities for attacking players from dead-ball situations.

This became a set-piece World Cup and two of the best at it - winners France and fourth-placed England - went deep in the competition.

If arbiters continue to clamp down on defensive misdemeanours there could well be more to come from the set-piece aces with France grabbing the all-important first goal from either a set-piece or penalty in every knockout match.

3 Retaining the World Cup is a tough ask

Brazil, in 1962, remain the last country to win successive World Cups and Germany followed recent European winners France, Spain and Italy in crashing out at the group stage when attempting to retain the crown.

In going out early Germany failed just about every stereotype for their national team and showed a vulnerability which just did not seem possible heading into the tournament.

However, Joachim Low, like many other World Cup-winning bosses before him, was unable to ditch the stars who provided the high four years previously.

Maintaining the hunger is difficult, but fresh blood needs to be injected into the side and Low failed miserably by not integrating new players alongside his comfortable, established stars.

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4 No point obsessing over managerial ability

All four semi-finalists had question marks regarding their managers heading into the tournament but a harmonious squad is probably more important than a tip-top tactical guru.

We have become obsessed with the superstar managers and their philosophies in club football, particularly in the Premier League, yet international football tends to be different.

Arguably the best club boss was Argentina's Jorge Sampaoli and he was a shambles in Russia, whereas the likes of Gareth Southgate, Roberto Martinez and Zlatko Dalic managed to create a unity that made up for misgivings about other parts of their managerial ability.

Martinez can probably count himself most unlucky as he barely put a foot wrong, changing his approach when needed and Belgium just fell on the wrong side of the draw.

There is still enough time for the third-placed Belgians to turn from the bronze generation to the golden generation and compensation could come in the inaugural 2018-19 Nations League with the 11-2 Red Devils in a soft group alongside Switzerland and Iceland.

5 African countries were unlucky
No continent gets a rougher deal from the qualification process than Africa but the fact that none of their teams made the last 16 was down to misfortune rather than a lack of ability.

Egypt were handicapped by not having a fully-fit Mohamed Salah, Morocco played some magical football for the reward of one paltry point, Nigeria (the youngest squad at the tournament) grew into the finals to suggest their future is bright, Tunisia were decimated by injuries but still scored five goals and Senegal were mugged by the terrible rule of separating deadlocked sides on a yellow card count.

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