Argentina won their third FIFA World Cup in an extraordinary final match on Sunday in Lusail as they beat France 4-2 on penalty kicks.

This was after Lionel Messi scored twice in a 3-3 draw and Kylian Mbappe grabbed a hat-trick to bring the holders back from 2-0 and 3-2 down.

It was an incredible night of drama, high emotion and fluctuating fortunes, delivering one of the all-time great finals to cap a wonderful tournament.

It was impressive as the competition’s two star players delivered command performances on the biggest stage of all.

Argentina had looked to be cruising to a one-sided victory after Messi’s penalty kick and a brilliant goal by Angel Di Maria in the first half put them in total control.

But Mbappe converted an 80th-minute penalty kick and volleyed in a sublime equaliser a minute later to take the game to extra time.

Messi put Argentina ahead again but Mbappe levelled with another penalty kick.

The Frenchman thus became the second man to score a World Cup final hat-trick after England’s Geoff Hurst in 1966.

In the shootout, Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez saved Kingsley Coman’s effort and Aurelien Tchouameni fired wide.

That gave substitute full-back Gonzalo Montiel, who gave away the penalty kick for France’s third goal, the chance for the ultimate redemption.

He duly took this by calmly sending Hugo Lloris the wrong way.

It meant that after his record 26th World Cup match, at the fifth and final time of asking, the 35-year-old Messi claimed the trophy his talent and commitment to his country demanded.

It elevated him alongside Diego Maradona, Argentina’s first football god, who carried them to their emotional second triumph in 1986 following the first in 1978.

“I wanted to close my career with this, it was the one that was missing. So, I can no longer ask for anything else,” said Messi, who has played 172 times for his country.

“I was able to get the Copa America and now the World Cup that I had fought so hard for. I’ve got it at the end of my career.

“But I love football and I want to continue living a few more games being world champion.”

The victory seems all the more incredible coming a month after his team began the tournament by suffering statistically the biggest upset in World Cup history when they lost to Saudi Arabia.

“I cannot believe that we have suffered so much in a perfect game. Unbelievable, but this team responds to everything,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said.

“I am proud of the work they did. With the blows we received today. I want to tell people to enjoy, it’s a historic moment for our country.”

There was little hint of the drama to come as Argentina dominated the first hour.

They outran and outfought a flat French team who looked to have no chance of becoming the first to retain the title since Brazil 60 years ago.

They went ahead when the recalled Di Maria beat Ousmane Dembele and was tripped for a penalty kick which Messi slotted in after 23 minutes.

One of the best goals to grace a final came after 36 minutes when instinctive passing by Nahuel Molina, Messi, Julian Alvarez and Alexis Mac Allister set up Di Maria to slide in the second.

France barely fired a shot in anger until the 80th minute when Nicolas Otamendi tripped Randal Kolo Muani and Mbappe, previously anonymous, expertly converted the penalty kick.

A minute later he swept in a brilliant equalising volley after combining cleverly with Marcus Thuram.

He stunned the massed Argentine fans watching their team concede two quick-fire goals for the third time in the tournament.

Argentina regrouped well, though, creating several chances, and regained the lead after a counter-attack.

That was when the tireless Lautaro Martinez smashed a shot that Hugo Lloris saved.

Messi pounced on the rebound with a rare right-footed finish, with technology confirming the ball had crossed the line.

The drama was not over, however, as Mbappe hammered a shot against Montiel’s arm to win a penalty kick in the 117th minute.

He calmly dispatched it for an amazing hat-trick and a tournament-leading eighth goal.

Kolo Muani still had a wonderful chance to snatch it in stoppage time for France.

But he was brilliantly denied by the outstretched leg of Martinez when the winner of all late winners looked a certainty.

Mbappe and Messi both converted the opening spot-kicks of the shootout but they then had to stand back and let their team mates decide their destiny.

Argentina have now won six of their seven World Cup shootouts.

This includes the quarter-final against the Netherlands a week ago when they also blew a 2-0 lead in the same Lusail Stadium.

France, the only team to have scored three goals in a final and lost, have tasted defeat in three of five shootouts, two of those losses coming in finals.

“We came back from the brink. That’s what gives us so many regrets,” said France coach Didier Deschamps.

“We could have won it in the last minute (of extra time) but it was not meant to be.”

Two hours after the game, thousands of Argentina fans, many in Number 10 Messi shirts, remained in the stadium as the players and their families posed for pictures on the pitch.

They went for a joyous lap of honour, parading the golden trophy they last had their hands on 36 years ago.

This was always going to be a FIFA World Cup™ like no other.

The first to be hosted in the Middle East, the first to be played in November and December, and the first of its size to be held in such a small geographical area, Qatar 2022 offered a fresh twist on this old and much-loved festival of football.

But while the treading of so much new ground came with opportunities – the novel prospect of attending multiple World Cup matches in a single day, for example – the risks were clear and undeniable.

Gianni Infantino admitted as much earlier this week, when he confessed to pre-tournament concerns “about having so many fans from so many countries, at the same time, in the same place”.

“In a normal World Cup, you have in one city fans of two countries, not more,” added the FIFA President. “Here, you have 32 countries plus all [the] other fans from the world who come to enjoy the World Cup together in the same place.”

Given that the place in question has a population of less than 2.9 million and its stadiums are all within a 35-mile radius, questions naturally arose about how Qatar and its infrastructure would cope with a such a mass invasion. Others wondered how the on-field fare would be impacted by the tournament taking place in the middle of most players’ domestic seasons, with reduced preparation time an inevitable consequence.

One by one, of course, those doubts were swept away by a tidal wave of fantastic football, flawless organisation and friendly, passionate atmospheres on the streets and in the stadiums.

Jurgen Klinsmann this week described it as “a World Cup organised to perfection”, while Infantino has been far from alone in declaring Qatar 2022 to be, quite simply, “the best ever”.

The same description is, of course, being applied increasingly widely to the tournament’s star man. Lionel Messi was already a leading contender for ‘GOAT’ status but his claims to that title have been further fortified by a truly magnificent month in Qatar.

In the highest-scoring World Cup of all time, it was goals from Argentina’s captain that did most to determine the direction of the title. And not even La Albiceleste’s fiercest rivals could begrudge this wonderful player his well-deserved moment with the prize he has so long coveted.

Medalists

Champions: Argentina

Runners-up: France

Third place: Croatia

Award winners

adidas Golden Ball: Lionel Messi (ARG)

adidas Golden Boot: Kylian Mbappe (FRA)

adidas Golden Glove: Emiliano Martinez (ARG)

Best Young Player: Enzo Fernandez (ARG)

Standout sides

Argentina

From the butt of the world’s jokes to the worthiest of champions, La Albiceleste enjoyed one hell of a ride. And just as no-one foresaw that opening-match defeat to Saudi Arabia, few could have imagined that they would recover to achieve their long-held dream in such impressive – and dramatic – circumstances.

As for their talisman, what more can be said? Messi is quite rightly a beloved figure far beyond Argentina’s borders, and neutrals across the world were both captivated and converted to his team’s cause by the little magician’s pursuit of World Cup glory.

Morocco

It took 88 years of attempting for an Africa team to reach the World Cup semi-finals. Morocco were the continental trailblazers.

After sinking Belgium in the group stage, Yassine Bounou, Achraf Hakimi, Hakim Ziyech, Youssef En-Nesyri and Co eliminated Spain in the last 16 and Portugal in the quarter-finals. The Atlas Lions also gave France a strict examination in the last four before losing an end-to-end encounter with Croatia 2-1 in the battle for bronze.

Croatia

It simply must rank as one of the greatest achievements in World Cup history – a nation inhabited by fewer than four million people finishing second and third at back-to-back editions.

Zlatko Dalic lost several key components of his 2018 side, such as Danijel Subasic, Ivan Rakitic and Mario Mandzukic, but new stars emerged in the shape of Dominik Livakovic and Josko Gvardiol to complement the divine talent of Luka Modric. The Croatian highlight was a stunning elimination of tournament favourites Brazil en route to finishing third.

Japan

Would four-time champions Germany or 21st-century titans Spain win Group E? Japan made a mockery of the question the masses were assessing by slaying both those giants to finish top. The Samurai Blue also became only the third team in World Cup history, and the first since West Germany in 1970, to win two separate games in which they had been trailing at half-time.

(Reuters/NAN)/ FIFA