Messi completes his perfect set as Argentina resist the eventual Mbappe masterclass

Despite a record-equalling hat-trick from Kylian Mbappe, Argentina are the new world champions at the end of a tumultuous World Cup final.

First, they had the momentum. Then they threw it away. Then they regained it. And then they threw it away again. At the end of an extraordinary World Cup final – surely the best since it could first be broadcast live around the world, 56 years ago – Argentina stumbled their way to a World Cup win. They are imperfect but brilliant champions who didn’t seem to even understand the mental blocks that are supposed to afflict teams upon losing a lead in a high-pressure environment.

Lionel Messi got almost everything he wanted. Two goals and a champion’s medal. He couldn’t quite manage a clean sweep after Kylian Mbappe scored only the second hat-trick ever in a World Cup final, but he probably wouldn’t trade his winner’s medal for the match ball and a Golden Boot.

Football can move in mysterious ways and few will ever come as mysteriously as this match, which shape-shifted constantly from the mid-point of the second half on. Mbappe has a hat-trick, but no winner’s medal. Messi can now walk off into the international tournament sunset with the satisfaction of a full set, an itch that he was desperate to scratch finally taken care of.

There was no tickertape welcome as the teams took to the pitch, but in just about every other sense this was a home match for Argentina. Under most circumstances, La Marseillaise rips through whichever stadium it’s being blasted around, but on this occasion it came out as more of a whimper. In the tunnel before the match the television camera dwelled briefly upon Hugo Lloris, who seemed to be shaking slightly as the teams awaited their moment. Momentum was behind Argentina from before the whistle for kick-off even blew.

READ MORE: 16 Conclusions on the World Cup final: Messi magnificence, Mbappe majesty, Martinez mind games

Even for all of this, few would have expected such an insipid display from France throughout the first half. There’d been talk of a virus going through their camp over the last couple of days, but it had been broadly assumed that it had been limited to Kingsley Coman, Ibrahima Konate and Raphael Varane, the three players already confirmed to be playing apart from the others, and Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot, who both missed their semi-final win against Morocco with it.

And France played in such a surprisingly ragged manner for a team in such a big match that it’s difficult to believe this virus didn’t have some sort of effect beyond costing them a couple of players for their semi-finals and some additional sanitation measures in the days building up to the final itself. While Argentina buzzed and flitted around, France seemed both static and shapeless, careless in possession and lethargic when out of it.

It was that very carelessness that cost them the penalty for the first Argentina goal, midway through the first half. Angel Di Maria had already escaped a half-hearted looking challenge from Ousmane Dembele but when cutting inside, Dembele put in a challenge that looked like the worst of all worlds: never likely to get anywhere near the ball itself but kicking one of Di Maria’s legs into the other for a penalty that took a replay or two to see, but was correctly awarded. Messi took care of the outstanding business from the penalty spot.

Their defending for the second goal wasn’t a great deal better, though to focus on this would be unfair on the fluidity and foresightedness of Argentina’s attacking momentum. Messi, to Alvarez, to Mac Allister. So simple, so elegant and so sweeping, as the France defence were left completely flat-footed. Mac Allister’s cross-field pass found Di Maria, who scored with ease to just about put the game beyond France.

Or so it seemed. Didier Deschamps’ response came, somewhat surprisingly, before half-time. With four minutes to play, Dembele and Olivier Giroud were withdrawn to make way for Randal Kolo Muani and Marcus Thuram. Giroud had been reported as carrying an injury. Dembele had been abysmal to the point that France may have been better off had they started with 10 players.

France woke up a tiny bit thereafter – Muani at least seemed aware that there was quite an important football match taking place in front of him – but the half-time roar from the Argentina supporters inside the stadium was one of complete expectation. They’d seen what they’d seen, and they’d seen enough. They already knew that their team were the champions of the world.

And where was Mbappe throughout all of this? It must have been a slightly odd build-up to the game for the France talisman. As used as he might be to the limelight, in the build-up to this match he was very much in an enormous narrative shadow being cast by Messi. His first half was punctuated by a couple of neat, stabbing passes that went nowhere in particular. Much of his second half was similar.

But football seldom apportions itself evenly. A team can be visually the best and still not win. A player can be the best on the pitch but see themselves usurped in the headlines by somebody else altogether. And some players have that ability to spring from nowhere and turn an entire game on its head.  And in the space of 90 seconds, that’s what Mbappe did.

In the first case, it was low-key, handed to him on a plate by some bone-headed defending by Nicolas Otamendi, bringing down Muani with a clumsy challenge. Mbappe’s penalty only narrowly evaded Martinez’s out-stretched hand, but it was a lifeline. Suddenly, as though the previous 80 minutes hadn’t even happened, France were awake. 

And the second goal was the second great World Cup final goal of this World Cup final, a one-two with Thuram volleyed across and in. With France springing to life, so suddenly the whites of Argentinian eyes were visible. France continued to press, and the increasing desperation of the Argentinian tackles inside their own penalty area hinted that they could yet throw this away. Argentina had lost that overwhelming momentum that carried them through the pre-match and its first 80 minutes, even though Messi stung Lloris’s palms deep into stoppage time.

It was a sign of things to come. Argentina lost a two-goal lead in the closing stages of their quarter-final against the Netherlands but held on, regained their composure, and eventually won the tie. They went into extra-time as though conceding two goals in 90 seconds had just… happened to someone else, forcing the best of the chances throughout those first 15 minutes.

But even in those last 15 minutes, with tactics having been torn to shreds and the players starting to look like heavyweight boxers who’d fought for 12 rounds, there was time for more drama. Messi started and finished a move to give Argentina a 3-2 lead.

With two minutes to play, another poor challenge inside the penalty area allowed Mbappe, the 21st-century Geoff Hurst, to complete his hat-trick and bring France level again. And even after this, a chance at each end in injury time. Kolo Muani blocked by Martinez’s legs, a brilliant save. Seconds later, Lautaro Martinez misplaced a header wide that would have won it.

So to penalty kicks, again, the most unsatisfactorily exciting way of settling a football match. Messi and Mbappe stepped up first and both scored, but then France unravelled. Kingsley Coman’s shot was saved by Martinez. Aurelien Tchouameni fragged his wide altogether. Argentina kept their heads and just kept scoring. Gonzalo Montiel sent Lloris the wrong way to make Argentina the world champions for the third time.

Somehow or other, the narrative found its way. Qatar, who pay the wages of both Messi and Mbappe at PSG, got the final they wanted and their star men scored five goals between them. Messi got the career-capping World Cup winner’s medal that he’d waited so long for. And Argentina, flawed but brilliant, over-brimming with character and an attitude that seemed able to put every setback behind them, no matter how debilitating they may have seemed in the moment were champions.

How different might things have been had France played from the start? Or had they not been ravaged by injuries before the tournament even started and illness in the days building up to the final? They’re questions that didn’t really matter as Messi lifted the World Cup trophy. Because history is written by the winners, and this time the winner was Messi. It took him a long time to get there and it may well feel all the sweeter for it.