The match ended 2-2 after 90 minutes but Lionel Messi poked in a goal to put Argentina 3-2 ahead in the 108th minute before Kylian Mbappe completed his hat-trick two minutes before the end of extra-time. It is Messi’s quest that will focus the world’s attention on the 89,000-capacity Lusail Stadium in Doha, the most spectacular of the remarkable venues that the desert state have erected to host the tournament, for the 1500 GMT kickoff.
“I am well aware that Argentina will have a lot of fans behind them,” France coach Didier Deschamps said on the eve of the game. Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez said: “People say the favourites are France. But we have the greatest player of all time.”Messi has been brilliant in his fifth World Cup and Sunday’s final is likely to be his last chance to match the achievement of Diego Maradona, who inspired Argentina to victory in Mexico in 1986.
But his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Mbappe, 23, is aiming to become the youngest player to win two World Cups since Pele achieved the feat at the age of 21.
The tantalizing match was played at Lusail Stadium. Lusail Iconic Stadium, is a football stadium in Lusail, Qatar. Owned by the Qatar Football Association, it is the biggest stadium in Qatar and one of eight stadiums that was converted for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, he stadium was built as a joint venture by HBK Contracting and the China Railway Construction Corporation. Lusail Stadium is cooled using solar power and is claimed to have zero carbon footprint.
