Lionel Messi’s dream of winning the FIFA World Cup for his country Argentina has been fulfilled with a dramatic victory over the defending champions France after the penalty shoot-out here at Lusail Stadium on Sunday.
Congratulations to the new Champs of the Football World.
The nail-biting final of the world cup had a dream ending for Argentina’s star Messi, who stood up at the most crucial moment of his career with two timely strikes before opening the scoring for his team in the penalty shoot-out.
It appeared to be a straightforward win for Argentina until Kylian Mbappe struck twice in just 97 seconds to force the match into extra time.
Messi then appeared to have done it once and for all when he converted a rebound in the 109th minute, only for Mbappe to score from another spot-kick to tie the game at 3-3 and force a shoot-out.
With his third goal of the night, Mbappe became the first player since England’s Geoff Hurst in 1966 to net a World Cup final hat-trick.
Messi and Mbappe both kept fighting for their teams in the penalty shoot-out as they opened the scoring with precisely placed strikes.
The defending champions, however, lost the plot as Kingsley Coman’s next kick for France was saved and Aurelien Tchouameni then crucially missed the target, and the final diverted into Argentina’s favor.
Paulo Dybala and Leandro Paredes successfully netted the ball from the spot before Gonzalo Montiel fired the world cup winning penalty for Messi’s Argentina.
Argentina has been crowned world champions for the first time after 1986 and this is their third world title overall. Remember that Star Footballer Lionel Messi has confirmed he will play his last World Cup game when Argentina takes on France or Morocco in Sunday’s final in Qatar.
Messi leads Argentina to a 3-0 win over Croatia in their semi-final on Tuesday and will earn his 172nd cap at the weekend when he tries to bring the country its first World Cup title since 1986.
“I feel very happy, to be able to achieve this, to finish my World Cup journey by playing my last game in a final,” Lionel Messi told Argentine media outlet Diario Deportivo Ole.
