Introduction

It’s the final game. Argentina vs. France. This is Lionel Messi’s (Argentina) last World Cup, while France is going for back-to-back World Cup Titles. It’s in penalty kicks, and Argentina is ahead 3 – 2.

If Gonzalo Montiel scores this penalty, Argentina wins their third World Cup, and Lionel Messi’s first World Cup trophy.

The Backstory of Each Team In the World Cup Finals

Argentina

To start it off, I’m going to talk about Argentina, and how they got to the finals. In the Group Stage, they were in Group C, and in their first game, they lost 2 – 1 to Saudi Arabia. In that game, Argentina’s one goal was scored by Lionel Messi on a Penalty kick.

The game was one of the many upsets in the 2022 World Cup. They should have won this game because Saudi Arabia was one of the easier teams to beat. Argentina had a stronger offense that should have had been able to move up and score, or at least get lots of shots off, and be able to finish some of those shots.

In the second game, Argentina beat Mexico 2 – 0 with a Lionel Messi goal, and an Enzo Fernandez goal. I expected this to be a good game because both teams have really good players.

Argentina won their third game, 2 – 0 against Poland with an Alexis MacAllister goal, and a Julian Alverez goal, so in the Group Stage they did pretty well.

I thought this would also be a good game,  because of the Lionel Messi vs. Robert Lewandowski match up. 

Then, in the Round of 16, Argentina faced off against Australia, and won with a Lionel Messi goal, and a Julian Alverez goal. Argentina won that game 2 – 1, but it was pretty close. I thought Argentina would probably win, but Australia still had a chance because of Australia’s passing game.

In the Quarter-finals, Argentina went up against the Netherlands, and in full time tied 2 – 2, with a Lionel Messi, and Nahuel Molina goals, They won in penalty kicks 4 – 3. That was their hardest game in the Tournament so far.

I thought this would be a good game, because Argentina has good offense, and the Netherlands have really good defense, so it would be a good match up. No matter what, in general they are both good all around teams.  

In the Semi-finals, Argentina went up against Croatia, and won 3 – 0 with one Messi penalty kick goal, and two Julian Alverez goals. So, they pretty easily won that game.

I thought that Argentina would win, and it would be fun to watch because in the last World Cup Croatia made it all the way to the finals.

France

In their Group Stage, France won their first game against Australia 4 – 1 with an Adrien Rabiot goal, two Olivier Giroud goals, and a Kylian Mbappe goal. I thought that France would win, and it would be a good game. 

In their second game, France won 2 – 1 against Denmark with two Kylian Mbappe goals. I thought that France would win pretty easily, but then I remembered that Denmark had an all around good team so this result makes sense. 

In their third game, France lost 1 – 0 against Tunisia. I thought that France would easily win this game so their loss was surprising.They still got through into the Round of 16 because of winning their first two games.

In the Round of 16, France faced off against Poland, and beat them 3 – 1 with an Olivier Giroud goal, and two Kylian Mbappe goals.

In the Quarter-finals, France went against England, and just barely beat them 2 – 1 with an Aurelien Tchouameni goal, and an Olivier Giroud goal. I thought that England should have tied this game after Harry Kane got a penalty kick in the second half but he sky-ed it over the goal.

In the Semi-finals, France beat Morocco  2 – 0 with a Theo Hernandez goal, and a Randal Kolo Muani goal. I thought that France would win, but a lot of people were rooting for Morocco because of the underdog story.

The 2022 Qatar World Cup Finals         

World Cup Finals: First Half Analysis

To start off the game, Argentina was in control, crossing the ball in, and getting shots. In the 21’ Angel Di Maria got the ball, and faked a cross to get past his defender, and drew a foul inside the box, for a penalty. (This was Di Maria first start in the 2022 World Cup!) It was a penalty kick because his defender tried to get back to stop him, and pushed him from behind.

This was Argentina’s first goal of the the game.

After that, in the 36’ Argentina scored again when they had a chain of really good through balls to bring the ball up the field. To end the chain, Alexis MacAllister hit a perfect through ball to Angel Di Maria’s foot and he chipped it over France’s goalie Hugo Lloris.

The whole half, Argentina was in almost full control, and France was playing as if they hadn’t played the whole beginning of the World Cup.

In the first half,  I think that Argentina could have scored more, and France didn’t expect to do that badly.

World Cup Finals: Second Half Analysis

At the start of the second half, the momentum shifted. It was a more evenly played game, with attacks going back and forth, with lots of crosses and scoring opportunities.

Then finally, on a long ball to the edge of the box, Randal Kolo Muani drew a penalty, in which Kylian Mbappe finished the opportunity with a goal,  and then less than two minutes later, Kylian Mbappe scored again with a volley goal to the opposite side of the net right past the goalie to tie the game 2 – 2.

At the end of regulation time, it was tied 2-2.

World Cup Finals: Extra Time Analysis

In extra time, there are two 15 minute halves, then if the teams are still tied, then they go to penalty kicks.

In the first half of the 2022 World Cup extra time, Argentina went back to how they played in the first half of the game and were in possession mos of the half; however, they didn’t score. 

In the second half of extra time, three minutes in, Argentina had an attack, with a passing play between Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martinez, and Enzo Fernandez from a Gonzalo Montiel long ball.

The sequence was: Lautaro Martinez passed it to Lionel Messi, who passed it to Enzo Fernandez who then passed it back to Lautaro Martinez, who took a really powerful shot that was knocked down by Hugo Lloris,

Lionel Messi then finished it just past the goal line before Jules Kounde kicked it away from the goal. The score was then 3 – 2. 

Argentina stayed mostly in control, but France had a corner kick, and Kylian Mbappe shot it, and Gonzalo Montiel blocked it with his body, but it hit his hand. So France got a penalty kick, which Kylian Mbappe capitalized on, getting a hat trick, and tying the game again 3 – 3. 

2022 World Cup Finals: Penalty Kicks

In PK’s, to start it off, Kylian Mbappe not so easily blasted it by Argentina’s goalie, Emiliano Martínez, because he got a hand on it almost fully, but just not enough to misdirect it.

Argentina’s first kicker was Lionel Messi, and he easily put it in the back of the net.

For France’s second penalty kick, Kingsley Coman shot it, and Argentina’s goalie, Emiliano Martínez, guessed correctly, and saved it. This set Argentina up with an advantage.

Argentina’s second kicker, Paulo Dybala put it right down the middle into the back of the net.

France’s third kicker, Aurélien Tchouaméni put it just barley to the left of the post, and missed, however Argentina’s Leandro Paredes put it barley past Hugo Lloris to his right to make it 3 – 1 Argentina on penalties.

On the fourth penalty, France’s Randal Kolo Muani put it right above Argentina’s Emiliano Martínez. Argentina’s fourth, and last kicker was Gonzalo Montiel, who put it to the opposite side of Hugo Lloris to win Argentina their third World Cup win.

Conclusion

To conclude, I liked watching all of the World Cup. It’s super entertaining, and I will always watch as many games because I like watching (and playing) soccer. I am very happy that Argentina beat France, because it was Messi’s last World Cup. I wanted to see him finish off his international career with a World Cup win.

Are you happy with the result of the 2022 Qatar World Cup? Leave a comment below!