Exciting Football Fantasy close curtains on World Cup

With Croatia hoping to hold the coveted World Cup Trophy for the first time and France wanting to make it their first win since 1998, Football Fantasy was always going to be an exciting event. Held on the lawns of the Hope Zoo, which were transformed into the ultimate venue to watch the finals of the FIFA 2018 World Cup, it was bound to be an exciting Sunday morning.

The many gates opened as early as 7 a.m.. Patrons turned up in pockets to fill the venue. France and Croatia supporters came out for the big show, with many anti-France supporters donning their National Bread bags as hats and flags, supporting their team all the way to the end. With the National bread bag on a stick, Sandrea James told The Gleaner that she believed that Croatia played better football on the day and that France was just the luckier side as they scored more goals. "Croatia was better with the ball than France - is just that France got more goals, and goals win matches," she said. "A still National me say. Croatia all the way. Me sad say dem never get fi hold the trophy for the first time, but they did well. Second place not bad at all."

Croatia may not have come out winners, but that did not stop National Bakery from giving away 500 loaves of bread as they stood behind the team whose jersey bears a striking resemblance to their bread bag. National bread has been making the rounds on social media since Croatia beat Argentina 3-0 in the group stages of the World Cup last month.

Memes began circulating on social media, and people began to pay attention to the team, dubbing them the 'bread bag team'. Social media manager at National Bakery Jadesion Swiel told The Gleaner that for obvious reasons, the company had been supporting Croatia since the 2014 World Cup. Pointing out that social media response to their product grew significantly in this World Cup, Swiel said that he and his team saw the need to give back to the people whether Croatia won or not.

"It was amazing to see how people caught on to using our National bread bag as a substitute for the Croatian flag. We loved how other people used our product and wove it into the natural jokes, memes, and everything on social media. So win, lose, or draw, we were planning on giving back to the people. We gave away a whole heap of GIANT bread today, and everybody (France supporters included) was happy."

Swiel said that he and his team are happy that they supported Croatia as the team represented what their brand stood for so well. "Congratulations to France on the win! We had a team nobody saw coming. They were what people would call one of the 'small sides', but they are 'GIANTS' at heart, and we're happy to have had our brand associated with such an extraordinary team."