Argentina beat France 4-2 on penalties to win the World Cup

Lionel Messi’s Argentina won the World Cup by defeating France in a lively match at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar on Sunday night.

The South American team defeated the defending champions 4-2 on penalties. Argentina is the first country outside Europe to win the trophy after Brazil, which was held in Japan 20 years ago. It is also the country’s third World Cup title after victories in 1978 and 1986.

The first 80 minutes of the final were largely one-sided, with France failing to register a single shot on target throughout the first half. Argentina opened the scoring in the 20th minute when Messi calmly slotted home a penalty that was missed by Ousmane Dembélé.

Argentina doubled their lead in the 35th minute when Ángel Di María raced in to finish after a through ball from Alexis Mac Allister. The dynamic attack was continued by Leo Messi, in charge of the performance from the start, hovering between the lines of France’s midfield and defence.

French star Kylian Mbappé turned the game on its head in the 79th minute, saving a late penalty. Less than five minutes later, the 23-year-old scored again after clever interplay with teammate Marcus Thuram.

Twitter owner Elon Musk, who was present at the Lusail Stadium, tweeted that 24,400 tweets were sent per second after France’s first goal. Musk said it was the “tallest figure ever seen at a World Cup.” Images of Musk from the game emerged to show him with Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The game went into extra time and it looked like France had all the momentum until Messi scored a sloppy goal at the end of the second half of extra time. Moments later, France won the second penalty of the match. Mbappé stepped up and scored his third goal of the game and eighth of the tournament to take the game to penalties.

During the penalties, Mbappé walked first and went to press again. However, France missed two penalties while Argentina converted all four to win. Gonzalo Montiel scored the decisive penalty.

Sunday’s final was Messi’s 26th tournament appearance and the 35-year-old said the match would be the last World Cup match he would play for his country. Messi’s dominant performance and a World Cup title will also help settle debates about the player in his home country. The 35-year-old was born in Rosario, Argentina, but moved to Spain to join FC Barcelona. Since then, he has lived in Europe and has often been criticized for his performances for Argentina, even after leading the country to last year’s Copa America, the country’s first international title in 28 years.

Argentina’s World Cup run got off to a shock start after a shock defeat by Saudi Arabia. But the experienced side cruised through the group stage with a series of dominant performances and reached the final after beating Croatia.