Argentina are the champions of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup after beating defending France 4-2 on penalties following their thrilling 3-3 stalemate at the Lusail Sports Stadium.
Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria fired Argentina into a 2-0 lead over France in the 2022 World Cup final at Lusail Stadium.
Di Maria was a surprise inclusion in an attacking Argentina line up and quickly went about repaying head coach Lionel Scaloni’s faith in an explosive start.
The Juventus winger suckered Ousmane Dembele into a clumsy foul in the area, albeit with minimal contact, and Messi duly scored his sixth goal of the tournament, sending Hugo Lloris the wrong way to enhance his hopes of elusive World Cup glory.
Di Maria then crowned a sumptuous counter-attack, where Messi, Julian Alvarez and the brilliant Alexis MacAllister all combined to slice France apart.
Back from recess, France came into game in the second half and were poised to defend the title.
However, two goals by Kylian Mbappé toward the end of the second half sent the game into an extra time.
Following Mbappe’s brace, France put their aggressie selves over La Albiceleste in the additional 30 minutes but Messi scored in the 108th minutes to restore the lead for Argentina.
Argentina then went back into defensive system, allowing Mbappe to score his eighth goal at the tournament from the spot ten minutes after Messi’s brace.
In the shootout, Kinglsey Coman’s spot-kick was saved by Emiliano Martinez and Aurelien Tchoumeni fired wide. Messi, Paulo Dybala and Leandro Paredes all converted, leaving Gonzalo Montiel to send Hugo Lloris the wrong way and secured his country’s third World Cup since 1986.
Kylian Mbappé emerged as the winner of the Golden Boot award after scoring three goals against Argentina, bringing his total to eight in the tournament. Lionel Messi finished with seven goals and would have won the tiebreaker on assists had he and Mbappé tied.
