Writes by: Jorn Brobbey.
Lionel Andrés Messi and the rest of La albiceleste (‘The White and Sky Blue) defeated France to climb on the pinnacle of world football once again after 120 pulsating minutes failed to produce daylight between the two finalists
Argentina started the game on the front foot and looked more purposeful with their organisation and defence-splitting passes orchestrated by Messi from the midfield. One of such moves from the midfield was directed towards Angel De Maria on the left flank in the 20th minute by Julian Alvarez who plays his club football with Man City.
With acres of space at his disposal, the Argentine winger ghosted past Ousmane Dembele and before he could launch a pass to a team mate inside the French penalty area, Dembele recklessly lunged at him yards away from Polish referee Szymon Marciniak who pointed to the spot without hesitation for a penalty in favour of Argentina.
Messi elected to take the kick and dispatched it with clinical precision. 1-0.
The momentum and determination to bury the game to end it as a contest was with Argentina at this stage as they multiplied in attack and probed for more goals.
In the 36th minute, Messi initiated a move from the midfield and laid on a pass to Alvarez, who threaded a neat pass to MC Alister. The Brighton and Hove Albion striker sent across a searching pass to the accelerating De Maria on the left flank once again and although Hugo Loris dashed forward to narrow the angle, it was not enough to prevent the Argentina winger from registering his country’s second goal thanks to a well placed effort that sent the 50,000 strong Argentine supporters into delirium.
Argentina were in cruise-control and with their seatbelts securely fastened, it was going to take more than an effort to derail the South Americans who had earlier won the Copa America Championships in Brazil after 28 barren years.
For long spells, the Argentina defence seemed to have unlocked the secrecy of France’s Da Vinci code in attack that had hitherto made Les Bleus (The Blues) unpleasant customers for opponents to deal with. Although it was unusual, it was least surprising that Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele who were the weakest link in the French team were replaced and thus had no more part to play for the rest of the match four minutes to the end of the first half. Their position s were taken over by Marcus Thurman and Randal Muani respectively.
Infant terrible and striker extraordinaire, Kylian Mbappe by his very high standards, was kept quiet and seemed to have been eclipsed out of the game for a considerable length of time especially in the first half. Before the recess, France’s star striker had failed to inject his blistering pace and explosive incursions inside the final third of Argentina’s half and was unusually anonymous if not invisible.
There was little alteration in the pattern of play in the early exchanges of the second half with Argentina slightly on top and looking the more likely to increase the tally.
However, midway through the second half France began to warm themselves into the game and began to push men forward.
Kingsley Coman who plies his trade in the German Bundesliga for Bayern Munich was brought in to replace Antoine Griezmann and his inclusion had a significant impact on the French attacking line.
Suddenly the French team that had resigned themselves to the fate of a misfortune of the occasion had been injected into life again and gotten purchase on their attack and were asking the Argentina defence lots of very unpleasant questions. It was increasingly becoming obvious that it would take only ja matter of time for their efforts to yield the anticipated results.
In the 80th minute a hard-pressed Otamendi for Argentina sloppily pulled down a fast-paced Thuram to concede a needless penalty infringement. The resultant kick was converted by Mbappe.
Barely 2 minutes thereafter, a three man move involving Coman, Thuram and Mbappe saw the latter slotting home a stunning right-footed non-drop effort to restore parity and with it, restored hope of a possible defence of the title- a feat that had not been achieved since Brazil successfully defended the title in 1962 having won the cup four years earlier.
With the game tied at two goals apiece, the 30 minutes extra time was the next option left on the cards and as if the 120 had not produced enough drama, the second half of extra time also gave spectators and the global audience 15 minutes of mind-boggling excitement to feast their eyes on.
Just as Messi thought he had sealed the much-needed victory for Argentina with minutes to spare, an Mbappe goal-bound effort was blocked by Argentina’s Gonzale. France were awarded a penalty for the second time. Mbappe made no bones about this kick and resurrected and rescued French hopes.
30 minutes of extra time also failed to separate the two and the much dreaded penalty shootout had to be employed to determine a winner.
In the end Argentina converted all 4 of their kicks as against France’s two. Argentina were crowned world champions and for Messi, this swan song brought along that elusive gem that had been missing in the illustrious career of the greatest player of all time!
When the curtains were finally drawn, the cash-strapped South American country called Argentina made waves, rewrote the history books and brought down a ‘French Revolution’
