Doha, Qatar | FIFA.COM | Lionel Messi has longed his whole career to win the FIFA World Cup™. On an extraordinary night in Lusail Stadium, when Messi and Kylian Mbappe lived up to their heavyweight billing, the Argentina genius must have felt he won it three times.
Mbappe became only the second man after England’s Sir Geoff Hurst to score a World Cup final hat-trick, but it is Messi who takes the spoils, if not the Golden Boot, won by eight-goal Mbappe. Not that Messi will mind his Paris Saint-Germain teammate winning that race. Messi opened the scoring and looked destined for a straight forward triumph until France recovered from 2-0 down to send the game to extra-time.
Messi struck to restore Argentina’s lead but Mbappe equalised for a second time. Messi and Mbappe both scored at the beginning of the shootout, But Emiliano Martinez saved from Kingsley Coman and Aurelien Tchouameni fired wide, leaving unheralded Gonzalo Montiel to convert the winning kick. Argentina hadn’t scored in their two previous final appearances – in 1990 and 2014 – but the South Americans had two goals before half-time and could legitimately have argued they deserved more.
Messi broke the deadlock. Of course, he did. Angel Di Maria did the legwork, deceiving Ousmane Dembele to skip into the box before a nudge in the back from the Frenchman sent Di Maria tumbling. Messi nonchalantly rolled his penalty right and Hugo Lloris dived in the opposite direction.
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