Messi wins World Cup for Argentina

 

 

 

LIONEL Messi’s once-in-a-generation career is complete. The Argentina superstar is finally a World Cup

champion. Messi scored two goals and then another in a shoot-out as Argentina beat France 4-2 on penalties Sunday to claim a third World Cup title despite Kylian Mbappe scoring the first hat-trick in a final in 56 years.

The last time Argentina won a World Cup was in 1986. Now there’s no debate. Messi is definitively in the pantheon of soccer’s greatest ever players, alongside Pele — a record three-time World Cup champion from Brazil — and Diego Maradona, the late Argentina great with whom Messi was so often compared. Messi has achieved what Maradona did in 1986, dominate a World Cup for Argentina. Messi and Di Maria, who won the Olympics final together for Argentina in 2008, were the architects of the first two goals for their side at the Lusail Iconic Stadium on Sunday.

Messi put Argentina ahead from the penalty spot and played a part in Angel Di Maria’s goal that made it 2-0 after 36 minutes.

However, Mbappe scored two goals in a 97-second span to take the game to extra-time, and then Messi tapped in his second goal in the 109th minute. But there was still time for another penalty from Mbappe to take the thrilling game to a shoot-out. Paulo Dybala, Leandro Paredes and Gonzalo Montiel scored for Argentina from the spot while for France only Mbappe and Randal Kolo Muani managed to find the back of the net. Argentinean goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who made an excellent last minute save in extra-time, blocked the spot kick of Kingsley Coman while Aurelien Tchouameni shot wide of the post denying France successive trophies.

The World Cup champions Argentina earned $42 million in prize money for their soccer federation while France will get $30 million from FIFA. It was a magical first half from Argentina. France were outplayed, outthought and outrightly dominated. But Mbappe’s heroics took the match into extra time and then into shoot-out.