CNN
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Just yesterday, Enner Valencia beat Qatar to the 2022 World Cup.
As the dust settles from a spectacular month of soccer action, fans are treated to arguably one of the greatest World Cup games in the history of the sport.
Fittingly, Sunday’s final went off like fireworks to provide the final finish to Qatar 2022.
It was a final that featured superstar rivalries, penalties, famous goals and a goalkeeping masterclass, culminating in Lionel Messi being crowned world champion after Argentina beat France on penalties .
The pièce de résistance, a moment that will linger in the memory like a masterpiece, is the photo of Messi – hoisted high on the shoulders of his team-mates – with the World Cup in his hands. hands.
The best pictures of the 2022 World Cup
This match is named Kylian Mbappé vs. Messi – the 23-year-old French star is ready to take over the mantle of the world’s greatest player from his 35-year-old Paris Saint-Germain teammate.
Mbappé defended France’s victory in the 2018 tournament in Russia, Messi played in his last match at the World Cup, seeking to capture the trophy that has eluded him for so long and where he can match Diego Maradona’s feat of winning the 1986 tournament.
The opening 79 minutes were all about Messi. Argentina’s captain converted the penalty to give Argentina the lead. Next, his touch was the most important factor in the movement that led to this. The Albiceleste secondly.
Then, in the closing stages of normal time, Mbappé took control of the game alone, scoring two goals in two minutes and sending the final to extra time.
Messi looked to shoot and Mbappé looked like he was just going.
Except the diminutive Argentine then emerged to score his second goal of the game and restore his team’s lead in the 109th minute.
Refusing to concede defeat, Mbappé stunned his teammates, scoring a second penalty to claim his crown and take the final to a shootout.
Both Mbappé and Messi scored but in the end – France missed two penalties – it was the Argentina captain who was beaten by his team-mates as his World Cup dream came to life the real time.
Over two hours of football, these two players – at two different points in their careers – show the beautiful game in bright and glorious colors.
The final of the 2006 World Cup was held in 2006, when Italy beat France again, this time.
Sometimes, it seems unfair to organize a game with a shootout, a series of actions between the penalty taker and the goalkeeper.
However, at the Lusail Stadium on Sunday, a flurry of penalties seemed to heighten the pressure and tension.
Messi’s first-half penalty gave him his final goal of the World Cup, while his goal in the shootout.
Mbappé’s ability not once, not twice, but three times successfully to turn in the same position in the same game showed extreme panic.
In the previous Qatar 2022, one team had experienced the intensity of this pressure atmosphere and emerged on the other side, and the other had not.
Argentina beat the Netherlands in the quarter-finals in a thrilling game that ended in a penalty shoot-out, and one that saw the South American team show distractions and delays in attacking their opponents.
In Sunday’s final, Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez showed his ability to unsettle the French, curling the ball in front of Aurélien Tchouaméni’s attempt, which flew wide. France’s previous attempt – from Kingsley Coman – was saved by Martinez.
Penalty shoot-outs are arguably unlike anything else in sport – it’s a modern-day battle and a high-stakes World Cup final only heightens the tension and the drama.
World Cup finals are often tight and tight, with the ultimate goal.
Argentina and France threw out that playbook – scoring six goals, two of which were excellent.
Argentina’s second was arguably as good as Carlos Alberto’s stunning goal in the 1970 World Cup final in Brazil’s 4-1 win of Italy.
In the 35th minute, Alexis Mac Allister’s pass to Messi eased the pressure on Argentina’s defense as France pushed the lead.
After Messi’s hand to Julián Álvarez and the Manchester City striker’s pass to Mac Allister, who continued his run, Argentina were on target.
Unselfishly, Mac Allister had the presence of mind to lay the ball to Ángel Di María who finished off a powerful attack to put Argentina 2-0 up.
At that time, it seemed to be the crowning moment of Argentina’s victory, until Mbappé arrived.
After his penalty reduced the deficit to 2-1, a good one-two with Marcus Thuram saw the ball fall to the PSG star from the sky on the edge of the area. the Argentina penalty.
It seemed like all the time in the world, Mbappé produced a technique and a wonderful moment to thunder the ball past a frustrated Martínez.
These are the moments to imagine and the defining moments of the 2022 World Cup.
It will be remembered for many reasons – Messi’s story, Mbappé’s hat-trick in defeat, the nature of the game that keeps on going until the end and never fails to capture the emotions of the spectators. .
Of course, there is plenty of competition for the title of ‘greatest World Cup final’.
In 1950, Uruguay upset Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, while four years later, West Germany pulled off another great miracle, defeating Magyars Magyars Hungary, winning the first title of the World Cup.
Geoff Hurst scored the first World Cup hat-trick in the 1966 final between England and West Ham. Hurst’s second goal is still being talked about 56 years later – was the ball up? It did, according to the match officials and England won 4-2.
The 1970 final marked Pelé’s last World Cup as he won his third title with Brazil’s victory over Italy.
Four years later in Munich, hosts West Germany came from behind to win 2-1 against a star-studded Netherlands side – made up of Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens – to win the World Cup. – second country.
Like Messi at Qatar 2022, Diego Maradona almost led his team to their second title in eight years, beating West Germany 3-2 in the final.
In 1998, France hosted and won the World Cup for the first time, thanks in large part to the skill of Zinedine Zidane, who scored twice in the final to defeat a Brazil team, featuring Ronaldo. , Rivaldo, Cafu, Bebeto and Roberto Carlos.
However, with several stories, dramas and art on display, 2022 certainly has the title of ‘the final of the greatest World Cup’.
