The best World Cup ever, Gianni Infantino had said. It turned out Fifa’s propagandist of a president was merely missing a word. The best World Cup final ever? The case grew stronger as the game grew more illogical, more credibility-defying, more dramatic.
Twice Argentina thought they had won the World Cup 2022.
France’s responses – two goals in two minutes of mayhem, a further one in the 118th minute – amounted to the greatest comeback in World Cup final history.
Gonzalo Montiel came off the bench, first cost Argentina the trophy by conceding a penalty and then earned them it by scoring one in the shootout. If the journey from villain to hero was swift, it transpired some of an extraordinary evening’s heroics were in vain.
One fact is that Kylian Mbappe had started 11 previous World Cup games and won them all. France lost this, albeit on penalties. He will not become the youngest two-time winner since Pele. And yet he has drawn level with Pele and with Geoff Hurst. In one respect, he has gone ahead of everyone else. He has scored a goal destined to be remembered as one of the finest in World Cup finals. If greatness is proved on such occasions, Mbappe has done enough, at 23, to be considered a great. But on a day when he veered from the anonymous to the astounding, the prodigy who is careering into the history books collected a silver medal.
He also got the Golden Boot. The man whose missed penalty knocked France out of Euro 2020 found the net from the spot three times, including the shootout, with high-pressure penalties. He beat Emi Martinez four times and, ultimately, France still lost their crown to the ebullient Argentinians. The Paris Saint-Germain player who ended up triumphant was Lionel Messi, not the young pretender. If there is a question of the succession, the case for anointing Mbappe the best player on the planet now would be irresistible but for one man: Messi.
This was billed as Messi versus Mbappe: simplistic, dumbing down, the inevitable result of the Messi-Ronaldo era when players’ teams were overshadowed by players, when millions supported individuals. And yet the great men did as great men do: Messi scored two goals in the final, Mbappe three.
It took the Frenchman to 12 in World Cups, as many as Pele managed in his four tournaments. Spare a thought for Hurst, too. He has had 56 years as the only man ever to score a World Cup final hat-trick. Now he can at least claim he is alone in scoring a treble in open play, though Mbappe’s terrific penalties were sandwiched by a magnificent volley, hooked in from the edge of the box with a perfectly straight leg. And, Hurst may note, he is alone in scoring a hat-trick in a victory. Include his 2018 strike and Mbappe, though, has now scored four goals in World Cup finals, more than any other man ever.
All of which felt some way off when Mbappe began with an exercise in ineffectiveness.
Perhaps it lulled Argentina into a false sense of security. Certainly they seemed stunned by his two-minute double. If he was leaving it late to spring to life, he has never been a player to dominate for 90 minutes. His explosive brilliance can stem from his pace, but also from a sudden capacity to acquire momentum.
He can be unstoppable in spurts. He spent the last minutes of regulation time and much of extra time on high-speed solo runs, forever threatening to slalom away.
A chastening day for France’s other attackers was almost rescued by Mbappe. They had all one off before he had scored. An unusually ruthless Didier Deschamps reacted to France’s sluggish start by wielding the axe after 40 minutes, selecting Ousmane Dembele, who had conceded a penalty in utterly needless fashion, and Olivier Giroud for the managerial guillotine. Giroud has been an enormously emblematic figure in a tournament when he had ensured Karim Benzema was not missed and had taken Thierry Henry’s national record for France goals, but his final was notable for a booking he collected 50 minutes after being substituted.
And, on 70 minutes, Antoine Griezmann, deemed a potential player of the tournament, joined them in the dugout. Deschamps’ changes were catalytic, even if they took time to exert an impact.
Randal Kolo Muani, on for Dembele, won the first penalty. Then Kingsley Coman, who replaced Griezmann, dispossessed Messi and Marcus Thuram, on for France’s record scorer Giroud, fed Mbappe. The finish, though, was magnificent. Thuram later almost turned match-winner. Instead Montiel did in the penalty shootout.
Mbappe ended up being consoled on the pitch by Emmanuel Macron. The president’s political party is called Renaissance; the Renaissance Mbappe led out of nothing almost left France on top of the world. But never has such a spectacular impact been in vain on such an occasion.
