Lionel Messi is regarded by many as the best soccer player ever. But for every player considered one of the all-time greats, many fans look toward their performance in the World Cup. For Messi, the closest he had gotten to a World Cup trophy was in 2014 when Argentina lost 1-0 to Germany in the finals. Messi had said the 2022 Qatar World Cup would be his last, and with the World Cup final trophy missing from his collection, he was ready to win it this time.
Messi fought his way to the finals. When he finally made it, and the fixture was set against France, he was ready to redeem himself.
In the 21st minute, France’s Ousmane Dembélé fouled Argentina’s Ángel Di María in the box, so Argentina was awarded a penalty. Messi stepped up to the penalty spot and scored, giving Argentina the lead.
Then in the 36th minute, Argentina quickly counter-attacked, combining up the field and leaving the France defensive line in disarray. Mac Allister then threaded a cheeky diagonal ball across the box, and Di Maria was there to make it 2-0.
The defending Champions, France, looked hopeless in the first half as nothing was going right for them. In hopes to turn the game around, France’s coach chose to make two first-half substitutions, subbing Olivier Giroud and Dembélé for Kolo Muani and Marcus Thuram. But the half ended, and momentum had not changed; an Argentina victory seemed imminent.
In the 64th minute, Argentina made their first substitution, subbing Di Maria for Acuña. Then in the 71st minute, France made two more substitutions. Kingsley Coman subbed for Antoine Griezmann, and Eduardo Camavinga subbed for Lucas Hernández. France was desperate to get something going.
In the 80th minute, France was awarded a penalty, and Mbappé stepped up to the penalty spot. He scored the penalty giving France momentum to make an end-of-game push to tie the game.
Just over a minute later, Mbappé caught Argentina’s defenders on their heels and scored his second goal, equalizing the game.
Regular time ended with the score still 2-2, and the teams were off to extra time.
In the 108th minute of extra time, Messi scored his second goal of the game and put Argentina ahead. It was the goal all Messi fans were so desperately hoping for to seal the game, but Mbappé had other plans.
In the 118th minute, France was awarded a second penalty after a handball by Argentina in the box. Mbappé scored the penalty, tying the game 3-3 and making him the second player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.
In the 123rd minute, France’s Kolo Muani had a great opportunity to score France’s 4th goal, but Argentina’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez made the save of his life, denying France a 4th goal and pushing the game to a penalty shootout.
The game went to penalties, and Martínez went on to deny France two times from the PK spot. Argentina scored all of their penalty kicks, with the 4th penalty kick of the shootout being taken by Gonzalo Montiel, who would deliver the final blow to France’s hopes of being world champions.
Argentina was the champion, and Messi had proven every hater wrong. His most significant critique was his lack of national team accolades, but those criticisms would never be muttered again after Qatar 2022. He had effectively ended the Messi-Ronaldo debate and cemented himself as the greatest player of all time.
