Lionel Messi crowned his glittering career with victory in the World Cup on Sunday, as Argentina beat France on penalties in a final for the ages, triumphing 4-2, after Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick ensured that the game ended level, following extra time.
Gonzalo Montiel rolled in the deciding penalty to give Argentina their third World Cup and prevent France from becoming the first team in 60 years to retain the trophy.
But a truly remarkable game saw Messi and Mbappe both live up to their billing, with Messi scoring twice and Mbappe becoming the first player since England’s Geoff Hurst in 1966 to net a World Cup final hat-trick in a game that ended 3-3 after extra time.
Messi had opened the scoring from the penalty spot midway through the first half, before Angel Di Maria doubled Argentina’s lead at the end of a brilliant counter-attack in the 36th minute.
But the astonishing Mbappe breathed life into the holders, as he pulled one back from the penalty spot with 10 minutes to go before equalizing in stunning fashion just 60 seconds later to force extra time.
Messi then seemed to have decided the contest in Argentina’s favor once and for all when he converted a rebound in the 109th minute, only for Mbappe to net from another spot-kick, bringing the game level at 3-3 and forcing a shoot-out.
Hispanic commentators when Argentina wins the World Cup is emotional af!! Listen to the passion in my mans voice. pic.twitter.com/MrZiLVzdCN
— EddieVR (@sauceddie) December 18, 2022
The third World Cup final penalty shoot-out started with Messi and Mbappe both scoring, but Kingsley Coman’s next kick for France was saved and Aurelien Tchouameni then crucially missed the target.
It is the second time in five World Cups that France has lost the final on penalties, after they were beaten by Italy in 2006, and Argentina is champion for the first time since 1986.
The win allows Messi, at 35, to complete his glorious career by emulating Diego Maradona, and this will be remembered as his tournament, despite the best efforts of Mbappe, who finished as the tournament’s top scorer with eight goals, one more than his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Messi.
The Argentine captain won the Golden Ball for the best player at the tournament after leading his team to victory.
Mbappe hat-trick
France’s quest for history had been threatened by a virus in the days leading up to the final and they appeared sluggish before Argentina began scoring.
France’s Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring his side’s second goal during the World Cup final soccer match against Argentina at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, December 18, 2022. (AP/Natacha Pisarenko)
France conceded a penalty for the fourth time this tournament when Di Maria was clipped by Ousmane Dembele, and Messi stepped up to score from the spot for the fourth time in Qatar, his 12th World Cup goal, allowing him to equal Pele’s tally.
The expected response from the defending champions was not forthcoming and Argentina increased their lead in the 36th minute.
Messi and Julian Alvarez combined to release Alexis Mac Allister bursting through the middle, and he played a first-time ball to the back post for Di Maria to finish.
Argentina’s Angel Di Maria scores his side’s second goal passing France’s goalkeeper Hugo Lloris during the World Cup final soccer match between Argentina and France at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, December 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Having hardly featured in the knockout rounds due to injury, Di Maria returned here and appeared tearful as he celebrated his goal, which was a World Cup final classic.
France had not even mustered a shot and Deschamps moved before the interval to replace Olivier Giroud and the struggling Dembele.
On came Randal Kolo Muani and Marcus Thuram, as Mbappe moved into the middle of the attack.
Argentina’s defender #19 Nicolas Otamendi fights for the ball with France’s forward #12 Randal Kolo Muani during the Qatar 2022 World Cup final soccer match at Lusail Stadium in Lusail, north of Doha on December 18, 2022. (JACK GUEZ/AFP)
Argentina blow two-goal lead
Argentina had famously blown a two-goal lead before eventually emerging victorious in their last World Cup final triumph 36 years ago, but there appeared little prospect of a repeat of that scenario.
However, the French were suddenly given hope when they won a penalty 10 minutes from time, as Kolo Muani was brought down by Nicolas Otamendi.
Mbappe smashed the spot-kick into the net and the watching French President Emmanuel Macron rose to his feet. France had hope, and within another minute they were level.
Messi was robbed of possession by Coman in the lead-up before Mbappe found Thuram and then met his partner’s knockdown with a stunning volley.
It will go down as one of the most dramatic moments in World Cup history, and the French players on the bench raced across the pitch to celebrate with their teammate.
Argentina’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez blocks a shot from France’s Kingsley Coman in a penalty shootout during the World Cup final soccer match between Argentina and France at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, December 18, 2022. (AP/Natacha Pisarenko)
Argentina, who lost the 2014 final in extra time, looked shattered, and yet it seemed again that they had won it when Messi followed up to score early in the second extra period after Lautaro Martinez’s shot was saved.
But France was again saved by Mbappe as he converted another penalty following a Montiel handball.
It was end to end, and Argentina needed a brilliant Martinez save from Kolo Muani to take it to penalties and Montiel’s kick proved decisive to spark wild Argentinian celebrations.
Europe’s run of four straight World Cup winners came to an end. The last South American champion was Brazil, and that was also in Asia — when Japan and South Korea hosted the tournament in 2002.
Argentina won its previous World Cup titles in 1978 and 1986. In Qatar, the country backed up its victory from last year’s Copa America, its first major trophy since 1993. It is quite the climax to Messi’s international career — which might not yet be over at the age of 35 after all, because he is playing as well as ever.
It was quite the finale, too, for a unique World Cup — the first to be played in the Middle East and the Arab world.
For FIFA and the Qatari organizers, a final between two major soccer nations and the world’s two best players represented a perfect way to cap a tournament laced with controversy ever since the scandal-shrouded vote in 2010 to give the event to a tiny Arab emirate.
The years-long scrutiny since has focused on the switch of dates from the traditional June-July period to November-December, strong criticism of how migrant workers have been treated, and then unease about taking soccer’s biggest event to a nation where homosexual acts are illegal.
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