At the start of the Qatar 2022 World Cup final match between cup holders, France and Argentina surprisingly France seemed intimidated by the magical aura of Lionel Messi and the masterful understanding, coordination and ball skills of the Argentines. Argentina displayed skillful close quarter ball control and coordination and needled the ball through close spaces while the French seemed spellbound and at times transfixed.

It was a game clearly decided on the drawing board by a master strategist. For all of the first half the French were a shadow of their usual coordinated, pacey and enthusiastic selves. They hardly legitimately touched the ball in Argentina’s penalty area in all of the first half.

Part of the Argentine approach was to spread personnel out in the midfield and execute crisp passes, while interchanging positions and passes.

Part of the undoing of the French was the wholesale ball possession of the Argentines for much of the first half while the French appeared numbed.

Olivier Giroud and Kylian Mbappe who constitute the main striking force of France were effectively decoded. Giroud was crowded out of the game and starved of the ball by the French defence. Against Mbappe, the Argentines deployed a haranguing defender to force him to put the ball into space. The loose ball was then cleared away by a sweeper, preventing Mbappe’s blistering runs down the flank and incisive passes which typically opened scoring chances for Giroud and other strikers.

The game continued on those terms until 15 minutes to full time, when the French found renewed vigour and verve, while the Argentines seemed to turn down the tempo of the game and lose concentration, perhaps assuming that they had the cat in the bag.

The French then pushed forward by sheer guts and forced a penalty which was promptly tucked in by Mbappe. A mere 90 seconds later, the French exchanged a flurry of passes in the Argentine area culminating in an equaliser by Mbappe.

The psychological blow of those two Mbappe goals was huge.

With Full time at Argentina 2-2 France.

Next was the 30 minutes of pulsating extra time.

Messi put Argentina ahead in the extra time at 3 – 2 with France on the back foot.

With this, Lionel Messi had scored his seventh goal in the 2022 World Cup, the most by any Argentina player in the competition, overtaking Mario Kempes in 1978 (six goals).

With a penalty in favour of France, Kylian Mbappe’s bullet from the spot again leveled scores at 3-3 , and that was his hat-trick.

Mbappe’s scored again scored from the spot in the penalty shootout, bringing his tally to four goals on the day. The next two Frenchmen however missed their kicks, signaling the death of hope for France.

Thereafter it was red faces and hot tears, some of pain , some of Joy. Argentina had won the World Cup and Messi had had his day of glory.