This is the final match of Messi's World Cup career, and Argentina's opening lineup will be 442 against France's 433, with Di María and Mbappe on the left side of the field as the key players.
The game started with Argentina showing great depth in the midfield, making it a tough start for France. In order to limit Mbappe's breakthroughs on the wing, Argentina pulled De Paul back and was ready to tackle Molina at any time, so they decided to leave the attacking battlefield in the hands of Di María, who had recovered from his injury and was in excellent form in the first half. A couple of beautiful crosses and cuts caused a lot of confusion for France, and finally induced Dembele to commit a foul in the penalty area. As mentioned in previous articles, France gave away the most 12-yarders in the tournament, while Argentina had the most 12-yarders in the tournament, and Dembele gave away a huge gift at that moment, and Messi had no problem taking it to become the first ever Argentinean to win a 12-yarder. Group stage,
semifinals
Dembele's foul was unnecessary, as Di María crossed the line and entered the penalty area, but the angle of entry was too small, so there wasn't much of an angle for a direct shot, and as long as he was supported by his teammates in the back line, the ball wouldn't necessarily be dropped.
In this match between the two coaches, I personally think that the French coach Deschamps performed better than Scaloni. Deschamps found out that the midfield could not win against Argentina in the first half, so he decided to replace Giroud and Dembele in the first half, and Thuram and Muani came up to fight for the center of the midfield, and then replaced Griezmann and Griezmann after the second half. Griezmann was also replaced in the second half. In the second half, Argentina was a little bit conservative and replaced Di María after only 60 minutes, which led to the collapse of the Argentine attack. Meanwhile, due to the midfield struggle in the beginning of the first half, Argentina's physical fitness declined and could not cope with Mbappe's speed. A foul in the penalty area caused by an error by the defender, and another speedy pass by Mbappe forced the game into an extended match. Scaloni made only two of his regular five substitutions going into the extended match, yet it was inconceivable that he didn't make a substitution for a player whose fitness was slipping even after a goal was scored in the final 10 minutes of the French onslaught.
Because Deschamps in order to chase points, in the first half has been personnel dispatch, so in the extension of the game physical disadvantage surfaced, by Argentina repeatedly attacked the gate situation, by Messi scored the third goal, and the beginning of the second half to be able to get rid of the defense of the Mbappe performance excellence, and once again created the box handball, to obtain the opportunity to 12-yard ball, and at the same time with this goal to win the current golden boot award also will be The match was brought to PKs.
Overall, Argentina was the better team, however, under coach Scaloni's slightly conservative scheduling, France was given a chance to win the Cup. Perhaps former Argentine king Maradona, who passed away two years ago, was blessed by the heavens, allowing Argentina to overcome all the dangers and win the Cup, resulting in Messi's path to godhood, and Argentina becoming the first team since Spain in 2010 to win six consecutive matches after losing the first leg. After Spain in 2010, Argentina became the first team to win six consecutive matches after losing the first leg.
In addition two interesting statistics
I. France has an extremely high win rate in matches that reach the final, but has a 0% win rate in extended matches as long as it is unable to beat its opponents in the regular rounds, namely, the 2006 WC Germany lost to Italy in PKs; the 2016 UEFA Nations Cup lost to Portugal in extended matches; and the 2022 WC Qatar lost to Argentina in PKs.
Secondly, Croatia entered the World Cup quarterfinals in 1998, 2018 and 2022 respectively, and any team that beats Croatia in the quarterfinals will eventually lift the Cup. Maybe Croatia is an alternative gambling light.
