Before the World Cup final, there was incredible consensus among most football experts. Of course, in addition to those who preferred one or the other team, many of the experts worked on the theses: the French may have an advantage, as they are the reigning world champions, and the Argentines, because they have the deserving Messi. the right to raise the main trophy of world football above your head with his long and super successful career. In particular, such an opinion was expressed in an interview with socialbites.ca by former Spartak striker Valery Kechinov and the head of the Russian Chess Federation Andrey Filatov.
Another question both experts and fans asked was: Both Argentina and France won their semifinals as number 2 against an opponent – so how will they play against each other? The truth showed that this question was completely inappropriate.
The Argentines had a complete dominance on the field from the very first minutes.
At the same time, it cannot be said that the “tricolors” adhered to successful tactics before – they did not expect the mistakes of the opponent at all, the highly experienced head coach of the French national team, the world champion both as a player and as a player Coach Didier Deschamps perfectly understood that the Argentines would not make such mistakes. Because the French tried to play open and fast football.
But one cannot fail to mention the incredible intensity and quickness of the Argentines in defense: they won almost all the rebounds in the first half. In fact, the French created the only dangerous moment when they won a standard on the left edge of the penalty area and Olivier Giroud slammed into the crossbar, who was soaring after Antoine Griezmann’s filing.
At the same time, the French, who tried to attack with large forces, left empty areas in the defense. At first this was hardly noticed – for now they have dealt with both Messi’s attacks and Angel Di Maria, who is overactive on the left wing. But that didn’t last long.
Di Maria searched for a moment and found it: he got into the penalty area after beating Jules Kunde on the side, faced Ousmane Dembele, fell – and whistled: Polish referee Szymon Marchiniak corrected the penalty.
Admittedly, the episode was controversial: again, it gave the impression that Di Maria never fell after making contact with Dembele’s leg—she knitted her own legs instead. But the referee made a decision and the VAR team supported him.
Of course, Messi got on point and took a penalty in class: after waiting for goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to start moving in one direction, Leo tapped in the other direction and opened the score.
Having gained the advantage, the Argentines increased the pressure. Wards Deschamps was not going to sit in his own court and tried to act aggressively on counter attacks but it ruined them. The French cut-off shot from the opposing half gave the fans a masterpiece: With just a few passes, the Albicelesta players got into someone else’s box, Alexis Mac Allister passed the free Di Maria. in the left corner of the penalty area and easily outstripped Lloris – 2:0!
The French were in a desperate situation, and Deschamps’ decision to make two substitutions before the timeout was a meaningful testament to this: Dembele, who failed defensively and was inconspicuous on offense, gave way to Giroud, Colo Muani and Marcus Thuram, except for one head. Many probably thought that it was also worth replacing Kylian Mbappe – in the first part of the game, the leader of the French team did not give a single reason to remember himself. But Deschamps apparently believed Mbappe would still have a say. One way or another, before the break, the order on the field remained unchanged, despite Marciniak adding seven minutes into the first half.
Deschamps was right: Mbappé really recovered in the second half, but only in the 71st minute: he took a powerful shot from the penalty line and the ball flew several centimeters over the crossbar. At this point, however, the French counter-pressure began to bear fruit: they seized the ball more and more in someone else’s half of the field, forcing the Argentines to defend with all their might.
In the end, the “albicelesta” did not succeed. The South Americans, who had an overwhelming advantage for most of the match, eventually broke down. In the 79th minute, the Argentines “stretched” the opponent’s attack, Muani rushed into the opponent’s goal and forced Nicolas Otamendi to break the rules in his own penalty area – Mbappe confidently took the penalty. And just a minute later, the sharp attack of the French was crowned with an accurate blow of the same Mbappe in a falling touch!
The Argentines were only one step away from the long-awaited championship and now everything had to start from the beginning.
Marciniak added eight minutes to the main time of the match, and already at their end, Messi could have decided the outcome of this match – but after an incredible ball hit from the radius of the penalty area, Lloris took the ball out from under the crossbar. in a miraculous leap. It became clear: the winner will be determined in overtime at best.
The first 15 minutes passed as if it were the beginning of the match – again, the Argentines pressed and crushed their opponents in every possible way. They missed a few of the surest moments, thanks to the French selfless actions in defense. The second overtime continued in the same way, with Argentina again taking the lead as a result. Albicelesta’s sweeping attack ended with a pass from the right edge of the box to the goal where Messi was the big Messi! – He sent the ball into the goal with the right foot!
The defender parried the shot at the last moment, but Marciniak marked the middle: the ball managed to completely cross the goal line, this was confirmed by the automatic goal detection system.
The cameras caught a sobbing Di Maria, who by now had already been altered. Fans in the stands were enraged: some were on their side with happiness, others put forward their favorites – there were still more than 10 minutes left and everything could be saved. Maybe the French couldn’t handle it on their own, but Gonzalo Montiel unwittingly helped them: he took a blow from the penalty area with his elbow exposed and Marchiniak pointed the spot without hesitation! In the second penalty against the Argentina national team, Mbappe again approached the ball, easily spreading the ball and Martinez into different corners! The incredible leader of the “tricolors” scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final! Mbappe became only the second footballer in history to achieve this – before such a feat was presented only to Englishman Jeff Hurst in 1966.
In a game like this, only penalty shootouts would have been the only natural outcome, but it just might not have worked. Muani ran one-on-one with Martinez and was supposed to bring his team a third world title – but the goalkeeper managed to beat the blow with his foot! A minute later, Mbappe beat three of his opponents but was unable to beat the fourth. He immediately whistled: the world champion will be determined by a series of 11 meters.
Returning to the point of view of the experts voiced at the beginning, it is impossible not to agree with them on one thing: it would indeed be a shame for Messi to remain without a title.
And the god of football, fortune, fate – whatever you call it – turned out to be on the side of the Argentines and their leaders.
South Americans confidently carried out all their attempts, including Leo. The hero of the series was Martinez, the goalkeeper of the Argentina national team, who suffered a blow to Kingsley Coman. Also, Aurélien Tchouameni missed the goal. Argentina’s national team won the penalty shootout, becoming world champion for the third time in history!
Let’s note one more fact. Probably, the debate over who is better for years will not end – Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. But in a Leo he outstripped his eternal rival: he still won the world title, and it is unlikely that Ronaldo will have a chance to fill this void.