December 16 – After 62 matches, it’s down to the last two: on Sunday France and Kylian Mbappe and Argentina and Lionel Messi will face off to crown the world champion and bring the 22nd edition of the World Cup, the first one in the Middle East, to a close.
After a compelling group stage and a dramatic knockout phase, prompted FIFA boss Gianni Infantino to call this World Cup ‘the best ever’, the defending champions and South American champions meet in football’s biggest match to decide who will wear the world crown for the next four years.
Les Bleus can become the first team to retain the World Cup since Brazil in 1962, but it is somewhat false to compare this French generation with Pele and Garrincha, two players who were front and central to Brazil’s golden epoch.
The French however are the ultimate pragmatists, the same philosophy propelled them to victory four years ago. This Didier Deschamps 2.0 side are perhaps an even more restrained version: the novelty of Mbappe has worn off and the question remains whether this France are really that good?
The talent is their in abundance, but style and joy are in short supply. They have results to back up their claim to greatness but little else.
They will be up against Lionel Messi and all the emotion the Argentina side carry to the final, a final chance for one of the greatest players of all time to win the most important prize.
Messi-mania has taken over Doha and Qatar. This Argentina side was not supposed to be about Messi and yet it is all about him. At the same time, the Albiceleste are a sui generis side under Lionel Scaloni. It is neither the Argentina of 2014 when Messi dragged his side to the final until emotion finally consumed the team in a heartbreaking defeat to Germany, nor the 1990 side that rallied after the infamous opening-match defeat at the hands of Cameroon.
The opening defeat against Saudi Arabia forced Argentina to rethink and reassess. Their backs were against the wall after all.
Messi’s last World Cup participation is Argentina’s other great motivation. After Argentina’s 2019 Copa America defeat, he became a leader for the side, morphing from the somewhat timid non-committal lodestar, always at a loss in the Argentina XI, to a fore-fighter and the centre of gravity in a high-flying team.
It rekindled Messi’s joy, netting a brilliant goal against Mexico in the group stages and at times playing with the velocity and panache of his younger days. He is enjoying his time, chanting, singing and dancing with the Argentina fans and their twirling scarfs after each and every victory. His feet are dancing in Qatar and not even Josko Gvardiol, one of the defenders of the tournament, could match Messi, let alone stop him.
The final’s line-up will also please hosts Qatar.
After all the criticism at the address of the host nation, they get a blockbuster ending to the tournament, a nice add-on following Morocco’s fairytale run to the semi-finals, uniting the Arab world. Messi vs Mbappe is about different generations, one perhaps taking over from another, one king dethroning the other? But it also about two marquee players from PSG gracing the biggest stage. They must provide the ultimate show to wrap up this first of ‘Arab’ World Cups. Brand Qatar rolls on.
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