Mbappe\u2019s five goals helped France to reach the finals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFrance\u2019s route to the final was not easy either, but their opening day heroics, where they beat Australia 4-1, was a statement of intent that they were there to challenge for the retention of the title they won four years ago in Russia.<\/p>\n
Previous winners did not have a good time in the next edition. <\/p>\n
Italy (2010), Spain (2014), and Germany (2018) all suffered early eliminations after winning the previous editions in 2006, 2010, and 2014, respectively.<\/p>\n
France did not want to join that league as the 2018 winners, and their opening game triumph was a statement of intent.<\/p>\n
They would go on to beat and then lose to Denmark and Tunisia in their second and third-group matches, respectively.<\/p>\n
They did top their group and that set them up against Poland in R16.
In the last eight, France had their hands full when they came up against England, who had beaten Senegal 3-0 in their R16 match.<\/p>\n
In the highly entertaining match that saw each nation firing from all angles, France became the victors with English captain Harry Kane missing a decisive penalty in the final 10 minutes of normal time.<\/p>\n
In the semi-final, France were not at their usual best, but they did just enough to hold off African high-flyers Morocco, beating them 2-0.<\/p>\n
And so, the final was set!<\/p>\n
READ ALSO: TOP 5 best football African players at the World Cup 2022<\/p>\n
Going into the finals, the two nations had won it twice each, Argentina winning in 1978 and in 1986.
For the two men \u2013 Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe \u2013 this was a significant final.<\/p>\n
If Argentina triumphed here, Messi would match Mbappe\u2019s feat of winning a World Cup, and Argentina would surpass France\u2019s World Cup triumphs.<\/p>\n
Tasked with the responsibility of ensuring a free flow of the game in the middle of the park was referee Szymon Marciniak from Poland.<\/p>\n
Argentina did win it eventually, but it was not offered to them as they were made to sweat for it.
Lionel Messi, playing his 26th World Cup match, which is a record as no player has played more World Cup matches than him, hit the first blow when he put Argentina ahead with a penalty that was won when Angel Di Maria got brought down in the box by Barcelona\u2019s Ousmane Dembele.<\/p>\n
A scintillating move by the Argentines led to a fine Di Maria goal to put Argentina 2-0 up and, until the 80th minute, in charge of the epic final.<\/p>\n
For the large part of 80 minutes, France were bereft of ideas as they could not manage a single shot on target with star man, Mbappe uncharacteristically anonymous.<\/p>\n
Was the big stage weighing heavily on him? <\/p>\n
Not quite.<\/p>\n
He has played in and won one already.<\/p>\n
He would come to the party eventually.<\/p>\n
Mbappe scored an outstanding equalizer a minute just after he had converted a penalty kick in the 80th minute to send the game into overtime.<\/p>\n
If you thought the two PSG stars were done with their heroics, there was more in store as the game headed for 30 more minutes to decide the winner.<\/p>\n
Messi gave Argentina the lead once more in extra-time, but Kylian Mbappe equalized with another penalty, becoming the second player, after England\u2019s Geoff Hurst in 1966, to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.<\/p>\n
\u201cInto the galaxy of greats<\/em><\/strong>,\u201d the commentator screamed as the equalizing penalty from Kylian Mbappe went into Emiliano Martinez\u2019s net.<\/p>\nAnd so, the game went down to who had the nerves to score a penalty.<\/p>\n
As a leader sets a good example for his followers, this is what the two star men of the respective nations did in the shoot-out.<\/p>\n
Mbappe scored France\u2019s first penalty, and Messi did just the same for Argentina.<\/p>\n
Here too, the two PSG stars had canceled each other out.<\/p>\n
Another PSG star, Kingsley Coman\u2019s attempt, though, was stopped by the impressive Emiliano Martinez of Argentina, and Aurelien Tchouameni missed the target for France.<\/p>\n
Just like in the 80 minutes before Kylian Mbappe took matters into his own hands, Argentina was firmly in charge of the penalty shoot-out. <\/p>\n
Were they to let that slip as they did their two-goal lead?<\/p>\n
They had better ideas this time.<\/p>\n
Gonzalo Montiel, a substitute fullback who gave away the penalty for France\u2019s third goal, was now given the opportunity for the ultimate atonement, which he duly accepted by calmly sending France\u2019s captain, Hugo Lloris the wrong way.<\/p>\n
That was the kick that sealed it for Argentina and Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n
It meant that after his record-setting 26th World Cup game, at his fifth and probably final attempt, the 35-year-old Messi finally got the trophy his talent and dedication to his nation demanded.<\/p>\nArgentina are World Cup 2022 final winners<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThis elevated him to the same level as Diego Maradona, Argentina\u2019s first football god, who led his country to their stirring second victory in 1986 after their first triumph in 1978.<\/p>\n
The two individual awards on offer were shared between the PSG duo.<\/p>\n
Mbappe\u2019s hat-trick heroics on the night meant that he beat Messi to the 2022 World Cup Top Scorer award, finishing with 8 goals.<\/p>\n
Messi\u2019s brace on the night meant that he trailed his club teammate by a goal as he ended with 7 goals of his own.<\/p>\n
Messi did win the Golden Ball, which is the award given to the best player of the tournament.<\/p>\n
He also ended with the World Cup final Man of The Match award to cup his brilliant performance on the night.<\/p>\n
Didn\u2019t you enjoy that classic Lusail show by the PSG duo?<\/p>\n
Argentina and Lionel Messi have ultimately been crowned World Cup 2022 champions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
– – Football fans the world over could not have wished for anything more than what they witnessed in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Final at the iconic Lusail stadium when a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina went toe-to-toe with a France team that had what many refer to as \u201cthe next big thing,\u201d Kylian Mbappe, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1267503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[262,10954,1450,2297,5118,209,21001,784],"class_list":["post-1267502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cup","tag-duo","tag-final","tag-messi","tag-psg","tag-star","tag-triumphs","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1267502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1267502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1267502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1267502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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