Football World Cup final today: Messi of Argentina will show charisma like Maradona or Mbappe of France will score golden goal?
The final of the FIFA World Cup will be held on Sunday. Defending champions France and Messi’s team Argentina will clash in this match. Both the teams have won this title twice in the World Cup history. Argentina has been waiting for the trophy for 36 years. The last time the team won the World Cup was in 1986 under the captaincy of Diego Maradona. Since then Argentina has not been able to lift this trophy. On the other hand, France won the World Cup in 1998 and 2018. France has a chance to win the World Cup for the second time in a row. Striker Kylian Mbappe is a contender for the Golden Boot.
Head to head between the two teams
France and Argentina last met in the Round of 16 knockout match of the 2018 World Cup. There was an exciting match between these two. France won the match 4–3. For this reason, Argentina was out of the World Cup. This time Argentina would like to avenge their previous defeat.
Defending champion France reached the final for the second time in a row
Like the last World Cup, this time also France has reached the final. In 2018, he faced Modric’s team Croatia. This time he is up against Messi’s team Argentina. Before this World Cup, big players of France like, Benzema, Pogba, Kante and Ankuku got injured. Despite this, team manager Didier Deschamps built a balanced team and took it to the final of the World Cup for the second time in a row. The 36-year-old striker of the team, Oliver Girud, showed amazing header and scored 4 goals. Striker Kylian Mbappe is in the race for the Golden Boot. He has 5 goals in this World Cup. In terms of defence, France looked a bit raw in this tournament. In the semi-finals, the team kept its first clean sheet against Morocco, which means it was the first time in this World Cup that France did not concede a goal.
Strength of France
The French team has star forward players Kylian Mbappé, Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann, who have taken France to the final on their own. So far in this tournament, the French team has scored 13 goals in 6 matches, out of which Embappé and Giroud have scored 9 goals together. Griezmann, on the other hand, is yet to score a goal, but has three assists. He has the power to turn the match at any time.
Weak side
France’s defense looked weak compared to Argentina’s. Argentina has won 3 matches in this tournament without conceding a single goal. While the France team has won only one match like this.
Argentina in the final of the World Cup for the sixth time
Argentina has played 5 finals in the World Cup so far. Out of this, 2 won from him. Argentina played the first final in the first edition of the World Cup i.e. 1930. After this, the last time the team played the final was in 2014, in which it was defeated by Germany 1-0. Lionel Messi has every major trophy in football, but the World Cup isn’t the only thing in his trophy cabinet.
In this World Cup, Argentina got defeated by Saudi Arabia in the first match. But, after this, Argentina has performed better in every match. The team is playing a better game in every match than before. Argentina achieved the team’s biggest win in this World Cup in the semi-finals. They defeated Croatia 3–0.
The match will be difficult for Argentina as France’s performance has been the best in this World Cup. Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni will have to field his players with a better strategy against France.
Argentina’s strengths
Apart from captain Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez, Enzo Fernandez is the strong strength of the team for Argentina in this World Cup. Argentina has scored a total of 12 goals in this tournament so far. In this, these three players together have scored 10 goals. In this, Messi has scored 5, Alvarez has scored 4 and Fernandez has scored one goal. Messi has also assisted three goals.
Weak side
Argentina’s defense crumbles under pressure. If the opposition scores an early goal, there is a lot of pressure on Argentina. Captain Messi himself also seems weak under this pressure.
Potential playing XI of both the teams
France – Hugo Lloris (goalkeeper), Julius Conde, Raphael Varane, Ibrahima Konate, Theo Hernandez, Antoine Griezmann, Aurelien Tochmany, Youssef Fofana, Ousmane Dembele, Olivier Giroud and Kylian Mbappé.
Argentina – Emilio Martínez, Sergio Romero, Tagliafico, Nicolás Otamendi, Molina, Rodrigo de Paul, El Paredes, Enzo Fernández, Ángel de María, Lionel Messi and Julián Álvarez.
