CROWN FOR THE KING!
It's hard to believe that the FIFA World Cup flew by so fast. The battle between reigning world champions France and unchanging favorites Argentina promises to be intense! In the context of the game, we offer to dive into the history of soccer confrontations between these two countries.
FRANCE'S WAY TO THE WORLD CUP
The French national team has come up a long and challenging path of victories and defeats in the world championships since 1930. They participated in 16 Mundials. The team at different times included players of star status and talent: Zinedine Zidane, Michel Platini, Eric Cantona, and others. Two finals in 1998 and 2018 against Brazil and Croatia brought the French a dream victory. Now, Didier Deschamps' men have become the sixth team in history to reach the World Cup finals twice a row. The only other time the French conceded at this stage was in 2006 when Zidane headed Materazzi and Italy won on penalties.
Le Bleu has come a long way to being considered one of the best teams in the world. After this tournament, we should expect the final update from the team. Unfortunately, it started before the 2022 World Cup due to player injuries. The changes may also affect coach Deschamps, who, with great effort, has created a monolithic team, ready to achieve results and destroy any rival.
ARGENTINA'S WAY TO THE WORLD CUP
Two-time World Cup champion Argentina has gone on to lose three finals. However, they have always succeeded in the semi-finals! In general, since 2006, Albiceleste has performed strongly - except for the final in Brazil. The last time the team won the World Cup was June 29, 1986. By magical coincidence, Lionel Messi was born exactly one year later!
The brightest victory of Argentina was during the time of the great Diego Maradona. However, we can't compare the current Albiceleste and Maradona's team. Coach Bilardo adapted the whole squad to a single star. Today's Argentina national team acts like a mechanism, with no notable exceptions for Messi.
The biggest failure of the national team since 1974 was a three-goal defeat in the match against Croatia in the 2018 World Cup. However, this year the danger of losing to Croatia passed the White and Blue, but the upcoming meeting with France gives reason to be tense.
HEAD-TO-HEAD MEETINGS
Their collective history began in 1930 when fate brought these teams together at the group stage of the World Cup, which Uruguay hosted. Then Argentina won in front of many fans: Luis Monti scored the only winning goal in the 81st minute.
Today's game is called the Messi-Mbappe battle, and the final set will be the last game of the PSG striker on the world stage. The teams played against each other 12 times, and luck was on the side of Argentina - six wins against three draws and three triumphs for France. They met three times at the World Championships, and the advantage was also on the side of Albiceleste.
FAVORITES
A moment of interesting facts: the top four top scorers of the World Cup 2022 consist of Argentines and French. Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe scored five goals each, while Olivier Giroud and Julián Alvarez scored four.
The epoch of Platini, the Zidane generation, and now the era of Mbappe - no soccer competition is complete without a team favorite who pulls the whole team behind him, as if in tow. The only question is whether he pulls them forward or back. The media unanimously call Kylian Mbappe a star that can outshine a legend like Messi. However, in the semi-final match, Jules Koundé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Antoine Griezmann showed their brilliant skills. Teamwork is a very important indicator of success!
Without exaggeration, the Argentine national team is led by the legend of the modern generation of soccer players - Lionel Messi. It is his last World Cup, and he wants to finish with victory and on top of glory. Goalkeeper Amy Martinez can generally be called the guardian angel of the Albiceleste captain. During the World Cup, he saved two out of five Dutch penalties, made three saves, conceded five goals, and kept a clean sheet in two matches. Julián Álvarez, starting from the bench, scored two goals in the game against Croatia and won the penalty from which Messi opened the scoring. He is an up-and-coming young football player who shone at the championship. Álvareze even repeated Maradona's legendary goal, which Diego scored in the 1986 World Cup against England.
It is unknown whether we should expect a "favorite" score of 0:0 between Argentina and France. However, the intrigue continues; who will receive the Golden Ball this year - Mbappe or Messi? In addition, there are still some individual prizes up for grabs, as the Golden Boot, Golden Glove, and Golden Ball will be awarded after the final on Sunday. Le Bleu made a dream comeback against Albiceleste at the 2018 World Cup, but the roles could have been reversed this time. The best solution for all of us is to follow the game closely, cheer for your favorite and place a bet on BetFury!