Argentina won this Sunday, at the Lusail stadium, its third star as world champion after beating France in the penalty shootout (4-2) of the Qatar 2022 final, which ended with a three-goal draw.
‘Dibu’ Martínez, by stopping a penalty from Coman, and Montiel, by scoring the decisive shot, were the heroes of the Albiceleste in the penalty shootout.
Between the tremendous boiling of two unique, extraordinary footballers, in a hectic World Cup final, which Argentina felt won twice, tied by the incredible strength of Kyllian Mbappe and decided on penalties, Messi finally won his World Cup, went even further into eternity, culminated a sublime career and returned Argentina to the top of soccer for the third time in its history, 36 years after Maradona in Mexico 1986, with an agonizing victory.
In his fifth and last attempt, within the marvelous story already described by his dribbling, his goals, his passes, his overflows or his impressive record in Barcelona, he included the most unique and iconic moment of all, so desired since Germany 2006, so alien in South Africa 2010 and Russia 2018, so frustrating in the final of Brazil 2014 next to Di María, also decisive, with a penalty and a goal, in Qatar 2022. His World Cup. He does not lack anything.
At 35, it is already yours. He had not even been born when the Albiceleste won their last World Cup, to the rhythm of the great Maradona, who seemed incomparable until Messi appeared, who has rebelled against the pressure, has borne the responsibility and has channeled everything to excite a country whole, leading a team that complemented him like never before and transferring to the pitch the technical skill of Scaloni, a magnificent coach, at the height this Sunday of Menotti and Bilardo. Big words.
Not even France, the current champion. Not even Mbappe, the most dazzling striker on the planet. Not even Griezmann, a total footballer. No one has managed to oppose Messi. Not even the Scaloni group. To the target. That of Argentina, resurfaced from the two goals in one minute that the French team achieved, between 80 and 81, also from 3-3 in extra time, to once again dominate the world with the ball, to win the gold cup whose brilliance goes far beyond the visible.
Mbappe launched the first. Goal. Messi transformed the second. Coman’s third was stopped by ‘Dibu’ Martínez. The fourth was marked by Dybala. The fifth was sent out by Tchouameni. The sixth was scored by Paredes, the seventh by Kolo Muani and the eighth, the final one, by Montiel to confirm Argentina as the world champion. And Messi as an even more eternal player.
Argentina deserved to win before, which dynamited the challenge from the start. He did not hesitate for a second. His conviction, his ambition, without nuance. None. There is hardly anything random on Scaloni’s board (except someone like Mbappe). He flees from set phrases, analyzes everything exhaustively, compresses it into an idea and exposes it on the field with some footballers who executed it with absolute determination. All the first time. Until almost the end.
When in the 21st minute Dembele committed such a visible clumsiness that the referee had no choice but to whistle a penalty for Di María’s takedown inside the area, more disputed by force than by the contact itself, when Messi transformed it with the The self-confidence of an outstanding player, with a shot that gave Hugo Lloris no chance, the Albiceleste already imposed their own game irrefutably on the entire pitch.
By football, by possession, by placement, by occasions, by concept and by intensity. In the collective and in each individuality. It always came before then. In each set, in each clash, in each coverage. In every aspect that defines superiority in a match, with the gigantic dimension that all this takes on in the biggest final of all, in the World Cup. Perhaps also in the emotion with which he assumed the duel. That doesn’t decide who wins.
Yes they do make decisions. With only eight minutes in the last three games, prevented by an overload, Di María returned directly to eleven. A storm for Dembele and Koundé, destroyed by the winger, overwhelmed by the stage, overwhelmed every time Messi opened to the left. Scaloni’s “clear” and “decided” plan. The disaster of France.
That’s where the penalty went and made it 2-0 in the 35th minute. Everything from ‘El Fideo’, who rounded off the fast-paced and fantastic counterattack that caused a clearance to nothing by Upamecano and the dizzying activity of Argentina, who in six touches he exceeded all expectations in 35 minutes, with a goal that not only highlighted Di María’s forcefulness, but also an entire block, from the first to the last, from De Paul and Messi to Mac Allister, origin and assistant.
The most expressive disfigurement in France. Overwhelmed on the sides, deactivated in the middle, inferior name by name (de Paul’s first hour was magnificent), place by place, without a single news of their crucial man, Antoine Griezmann, disappeared among the compact structure of Argentina, without vision no option beyond a number of light blue and white shirts that reduced him to nothing.
The general failure of the ‘bleus’ seemed then irremediable. So much demerit, so much concession, in a final it was an unbearable weight for France, without reaction, without spirit, without football and without a plan. The threat of rebellion that he suggested at times was nothing more than that, a succession of passes, a few dribbles, finally some interning by the band… Pelé’s Brazil, the last winner of two World Cups in a row, was too far away. So complex. So strange. So final. Or not so much.
Because the worst France in this World Cup has one of the best soccer players on the planet, capable of destroying even all the laws of logic. Already with almost an hour and a half of play, between the first half, the 7 minutes added before the break and almost 40 of the second half, replaced even Griezmann in Deschamps’ despair, he was suddenly reborn. Without announcing it. Without foreseeing it Argentina. No other explanation. It’s soccer.
It had persisted in the most absolute irrelevance, until another penalty as controversial as the first offered France an opportunity that they did not even intuit, due to an action by Otamendi on Kolo Mouani that Mbappe converted into his first shot on goal. It was minute 80. In minute 81, the second, was also a goal: a volley from the corner of the area that surpassed Argentina and ‘Dibu’ Martínez. Unstoppable. Suddenly. A revolution.
And extra time, because Lloris flew at his last breath to repel Messi’s last attempt, because no one could oppose his opponent’s sudden resurrection, because football is so unpredictable that not even 80 minutes of obvious superiority are enough to feel like a champion. of the world.
Not even with 3-2. Not even with Messi, who clinched the goal in minute 109. Because on the other side there was an immediate response, through a penalty promoted by Kolo Muani, like the first, by the hand of Montiel and transformed by Mbappe, protagonist of a hat-trick in the final of the unknown World Cup except for Geoff Hurst, in 1966, again to discuss the triumph of Argentina, among the madness in which the game derived, with chances for both. Until the penalties. Messi’s happy ending. He already has the World Cup.
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