Reuters photo.
Doha: Late on Sunday night, December the 18th, the Argentine legend on boots Lionel Messi made the achievement of a lifetime, lifting the golden trophy of the FIFA World Cup under the Arabian skies of Qatar and amid global fans of football.
At the Lusail Stadium here, Messi's men cracked the superpowered defending champions France under flying Kylian Mbappe in a penalty shootout 4-2. France made kept Argentina at the cutting edge throughout the match, the latter surviving a few anxious moments before touching the trophy finally.
But, Mbappe, who scored a hat trick in the final of the prestigious event, became the tragic hero of the match.
Six goals, three from the penalty spot and a lot of extra time drama kept the nearly 90,000 fans on their toes and took the match into a penalty shootout.
After the full time, both teams were locked at 2-2, and the same happened, but scores climbed another step at the extra time, reaching 3-3. Thus the match reached a penalty shootout.
Mbappe opened the scoring for France at the shootouts, and Messi, with his extreme confidence, scored a slow one at the left side of the nets. But France's next two attempts did not make it to the nets. First, one got deflected by the goalie, and the second went off the mark. The next French scored, but Argentina cleared all the first four shots to make the win.
Messi, with his extreme confidence, scored a slow one at the left side of the nets.
In the first half, Argentina was cautious about cutting the supply line to Mbappe, and Antoine Griezmann wasn't there playing the key role of the midfielder for France. Messi's men also made good use of the Angel Di Maria on the left flank, while the captain repeatedly squared or floated the ball, sending probing crosses deep inside France's defence.
Argentina made a lead in the 23rd minute through Messi with a penalty kick. Before halftime, Angel Di Maria raised the lead to 2-0.
However, supercharged Mbappe scored twice (80th and 88th minutes), hitting global Messi fans hard around the heart.
But extra time proved that there was more drama to watch as Messi scored again in the 109th minute. But Mbappe was granted another spot-kick after an Argentine hand got involved.
The final saw two different aspects of the defending champion's game. In the first half, they were literally passengers while they roared back to match their rivals late in the second half.
It must be said that Argentina had the great advantage of their supporters, thousands of them chanting, singing and beating the drums to pump up their players. This was where they fell before the Saudi Arabians in their opening match of the tournament.