World Cup Final Preview 2022: Argentina Vs France

Two Argentine travelers, Dibu Martinez and Nicolas Otamendi (Twitter @argentina)

JAKARTA - After being held for almost a month full of surprises, the 2022 World Cup finally opened its closing chapter by bringing together Argentina and France at the Lusail Stadium, Sunday night.

This is the dream final between the Copa America champions and the reigning champions between two age-different superstars, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, between two football poles that play efficiently but toxicly for their opponents.

Argentina was ousted in front of Saudi Arabia. Thus France fell to their knees to Tunisia. But that defeat only made them even more violent from the match to the next match.

Argentina finally topped the group and then silenced Australia 2-1 in the last 16, then won on penalties against the Netherlands in the quarter-finals after Orange bounced back after trailing 0-2.

Croatia's semifinal match is proof that Argentina has recovered to their full strength and then stopped the 2018 finalists who eliminated Brazil in the quarter-finals.

While France, who seemed to be the best team in the tournament, ran aground in Tunisia. but then got up to beat Poland 3-1 in the last 16.

They restored themselves as the most clinical team in maximizing their third chance of getting England out of the tournament with a 2-1 win, before stopping Morocco's 2-0 fairy tale journey in the semifinals.

The two now meet to prove which of them is the best in the world. But it's also a game to answer whether Lionel Messi was able to win his home trophy after four editions and then failed to get it. Whether he will be on par with Diego Maradona who led Argentina to world champion in 1986.

Launching Antara, Sunday, apart from being the final of the second World Cup, this match is also Messi's 26th World Cup match which cannot be matched by any player.

France is clearly the one for Messi in realizing his dream of winning the World Cup. Before Messi scored or made an assist, maybe Kylian Mbappe did it first or even surpassed it, because like Messi who owned Julian Alvarez and Angel in Maria, Mbappe also had great deputies on Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, and Ousmane Dembele.

Predictions of the first eleven players

Argentina (4-3-3): Emiliano Martinez; Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, Nicolas Otamendi, Marcos Acuna; Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernandez, Alexis Mac Allister; Angel Di Maria, Lionel Messi, Julian Alvarez.

France (4-2-3-1): Hugo Lloris; Jules Kunde, Raphael Varane, Dayot Upamecano, Theo Hernandez; Aurelien Tchouameni, Adrien Rabiot; Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe; Olivier Giroud.

Statistics and head to head

This is Argentina and France's fourth meeting in the World Cup finals. The last time it happened was in Russia in 2018 when France won 4-3 in the last 16. In the other two meetings Argentina won in 1930 and 1978.

For Argentina this is the sixth World Cup final after winning in 1978 and 1986, but losing in 1930, 1990, and 2014.

Argentina have lost just one of its last 42 international matches in surrendering to Saudi Arabia in the 2022 World Cup group stage. So far in Qatar they have scored 12 goals which was the most since 1986 when they scored 14 goals.

Messi will play his second World Cup final after losing to Germany in 2014. The World Cup trophy is the only major tournament title he hasn't been able to collect.

France played their fourth World Cup final after winning in 1998 and 2018, but lost in the 2006 edition.

France became the first two consecutive finalists since Brazil in 2002, and will be the third country to win the World Cup twice in a row after Italy in 1934 and 1938, and Brazil in 1958 and 1962.

Mbappe scored five goals in six games that surpassed his tally during the 2018 World Cup. The 23-year-old has scored a total of nine World Cup goals from 13 games.