The Argentine national team will challenge the current champion France this Sunday in search of the last step towards glory in the World Cup in Qatar, a collective dream that exceeds the country’s borders due to the universal desire to crown Lionel Messi.
Nearly 90,000 people will attend the Lusail Stadium and more than 3,500 million viewers around the planet will follow from Argentine noon, local 18:00, the definition of the first World Cup in the Middle East.
The match after the closing ceremony will be refereed by the Polish Szymon Marciniakwho will be accompanied by his compatriots Pawel Sokolnicki (first assistant), Tomasz Listkiewicz (second) and Tomasz Kwiatkowski (VAR).
The main stage of Qatar 2022, with a capacity of 88,966 seats, will have an environment that is clearly favorable to Messi’s team. The 35,000 Argentines in attendance will be complemented by thousands of other fans from different parts of the world who yearn for the consecration of the 10th. The French will have the support of approximately 6,000 fans.
Messi35, will play his last match for the FIFA World Cup on the same day as will break the attendance record (26) after participating in the last five editions (Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022).
The captain of the “Albiceleste” will assume his second World Cup final in search of revenge for the defeat suffered in extra time against Germany (0-1)more than eight years ago at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This edition of FIFA’s top tournament offered a stunning performance by the star, who leads the top scorers table along with Kylian Mbappé (5) and also the assists table with Antoine Griezmann (3) and two other players who are no longer in the competence.
The final of the 2022 World Cup is presented as a symbolic dispute between Messi and Mbappé (23), teammates at Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), a club that is owned by Qatari capital and chaired by local businessman Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
But also as a fight between two selected teams who aspire to embroider the third star on the shield of their federation. Argentina was champion in 1978 and 1986, while France crowned in 1998 and 2018.
The path of the “Scaloneta”
Lionel Scaloni’s team went from low to high competition: they debuted with a surprise defeat against Saudi Arabia, reached the final round after beating Mexico and Poland and then eliminated Australia, the Netherlands -on penalties- and the runner-up Croatia in its best performance.
The way of France
France won their group with victories over Australia and Denmark -they lost the last one with Tunisia- and from the round of 16 they left Poland, England and Morocco on the road.
The French national team, who knew how to hide previous important casualties such as Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kanté and Karim Benzema, among others, is chasing the third consecutive two-time championship in the history of the World Cups, something that only Italy could achieve in the years of fascism ( 1934-1938) and Brazil (1958-1962) during the initial stage of “O Rei” Pelé.
The Argentine National Team reaches the final with all your staff availableafter recovering the suspended Gonzalo Montiel and Marcos Acuña and also Ángel Di María, who has been suffering from a muscular ailment since the round of 16 key.
The current 34-year-old Juventus player could return to the title in the match that will mark the end of his stage with the Argentine shirt, which he has worn 128 times since his debut in 2008 under the command of Alfio Basile.
Di María, along with Messi, is the only footballer in the current squad who played in the World Cup in Brazil, although he could not be in that final at the Maracana due to an injury. On that same stage, in 2021, he scored the goal in the Copa América final against the local team that ended a 28-year drought.
scaloni now resolved the scheme and initial formation for the last meeting in Qatar but he did not want to confirm it. One possibility is the inclusion of Di María to play with a 4-3-3 and the other is the entry of Lisandro Martínez in a defensive line of 5 to counteract the offensive power of the current world champion.
France worked this Saturday with all its players after the five casualties on Friday due to physical ailments and a virus that affected its squad in days. The players excluded yesterday were Raphael Varane, Ibrahima Konaté and Kingsley Coman, with symptoms of the “camel virus”, and Theo Hernández and Aurélien Tchouaméni, beaten.
None of them will have problems being fielded by coach Didier Deschamps, who will also recover defender Dayot Upamecano and midcap player Adrien Rabiot, absent in the semifinals due to the virus.
Argentina has a 2-1 advantage in the World Cup history with the French but lost in the only previous direct elimination (3-4 for the round of 16 in Russia 2018). His two wins were in the group stage of 1930 (1-0) and 1978 (2-1).
