Croatia finished runners-up at the 2018 FIFA World Cup after losing 4-2 to France in the final at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday.

"It's difficult to accept the result of this final match, as I believe we were playing better. But I'm still proud as we did our best on the pitch. Not always the best one wins. The referees played a very important role in the first half of the match... We're looking forward to coming back to Croatia... We believed in ourselves, as we had managed to beat Argentina, one of the best teams in the world, in the group-stage match," Lovren told journalists.

In the tournament, Croatia beat Argentina 3-0 on June 26 in the group stage before defeating hosts Russia and Denmark on penalties and England after extra time.

"You know, it was even more difficult to face Denmark and Russia, as we've traditionally played badly against exactly these countries, but we broke the habit. I don't want to look for excuses, but the French team were fresher, they had an extra day-off, they did not play three 120-minutes-long matches in a row," Lovren said.

France played their semi-final match a day earlier than Croatia.

Russia's first-ever FIFA World Cup kicked off on June 14 and came to a close on Sunday with 64 games played in 11 cities across the country.