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Lionel Messi-led Argentina and Kylian Mbappe's France squared off against each other in the FIFA World Cup 2022 final at the Lusail Stadium. Both the teams had the chance to win their third World Cup title and Argentina pulled off a victory against France to end their 36 years World Cup title drought.
While Argentina defeated Croatia 3-0 in the semifinals, France dominated Morocco 2-0 to reach their second straight FIFA World Cup final. In the 2018 World Cup, France knocked out Argentina 4-3 in the Round of 16 stages and Argentina completed their revenge by defeating Les Bleus in the final.
Argentina took a two-goal lead in the first half as star winger Angel Di Maria got his involvement in both the goals. While first goal was awarded a penalty kick after French forward Ousmane Dembele brought down Angel Di Maria in the box, the second goal was a beautiful team effort that involved four Argentine players. Lionel Messi scored the opener in the final from the spot, which was his 12th goal at the FIFA World Cup.
In the 37th minute, Alexis Mac Allister commenced the move and produced the assist to Angel Di Maria, who completed a spectacular Argentine move that involved four players. Allister's passed the ball to Lionel Messi in their own half and Messi found Julian Alvarez running wide. Alvarez then gave a through ball to Allister, who produced a brilliant piece of a selfless game and assisted Angel Di Maria for Argentina's second goal.
Read: Argentina vs France - Live Score and Updates
However, it was France star forward Kylian Mbappe who scored a two-minute brace to force the game into the extra-time. While Mbappe levelled Messi in the list of top goal scorers of the FIFA World Cup 2022 with his first goal from the spot, the 23-year-old PSG star scored another to surpass the Argentina captain in the Golden Boot race.
In the extra-time, Messi took Argentina on the lead again with his superb finish in the first 15 minutes, but Mbappe scored another penalty in the last 10 minutes of the game to force the game into the penalties. At the end, Emiliano Martinez made two saves to help Lionel Messi-led Argentina lift the FIFA World Cup 2022 trophy.