Previously, only the World Cup was missing from Lionel Messi’s championship collection. The victory of the Argentina national team in Qatar, arguably made him the best football player in the history of that game.
On Sunday, December 18, Qatar hosted the 22nd FIFA World Cup final. The current champion team of France went against Argentina. As a rule, in the final matches, teams can be extremely careful because the slightest mistake can decide the fate of the entire tournament. And a rare final with so many goals and scoring chances is amazing. But this was one of them, with a comeback and penalty shootout at the 82nd minute. The Argentines nevertheless managed to win their third world title on penalties.
The match took place at the Lusail stadium, where a team of referees from Poland, headed by Szymon Marciniak, was in charge.
The final match was notable for the match between Lionel Messi and French forward Killian Mbappe, for which the Qatar World Cup was apparently the last of his career.
The 23-year-old Frenchman has already played in two big matches of world football forums and after the Messi/Ronaldo era gone, he will likely be one of the main actors of world football.
In the 24th minute, Lionel Messi confidently turned the penalty against Hugo Lloris for Ousmane Dembele’s foul on Angel di Maria, leading the score.
On a counterattack at 36 minutes, Alexis McAlister broke the wing and sent the ball to the far post, and di Maria doubled the lead with the first goal.
In the 80th minute, France withdrew a goal. Mbappé commuted the penalty for Nicolás Otamendi’s foul on Kolo Muani.
As soon as the Argentines managed to breed from the middle of the field, the French jumped back. Kingsley Coman took the ball from the Argentinian player, went down the flank and passed the same ball to the centre, where Kylian Mbappe hit the ball after the reduction.
Regular time ended in a 2-2 draw. In 109 minutes of extra time, Messi put Argentina ahead by sending the ball into the net after Hugo Lloris bounced off Lautaro Martínez’s kick.
However, the French regrouped, and in the 118th minute, France again equalized. Mbappe again scored a hat-trick by turning the penalty.
The result of the championship was determined in penalty shootouts, where the hero was Argentina’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and the abducted anti-hero, 22-year-old Aurélien Tchuameni. Penalty shootout score is 4:2.
Recall that the Croatian national team beat Morocco in the match for third place. The score in favor of Croatia 2-1 in the first half did not change in the 90th minute of the match. This is the second success for the Croats: in the World Cup in France-98, the Croatian team beat Germany 3:0.
Previously Focus He reported that Lionel Messi, like legendary compatriot Diego Maradona, helped the national team advance to their second World Cup final. In the semi-finals, Messi smashed the passes and scored a double goal thanks to his assistant Julian Alvarez.
Source: Focus
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