Lionel Messi led Argentina to victory on Sunday night as they defeated France 4-2 on penalties to win the World Cup at the Lusail Stadium. This came after an action-packed 120 minutes of football that ended with a 3-3 deadlock.
“It’s anyone’s childhood dream. I was lucky to have achieved everything in this career … and this one that was missing is here,” Messi commented following his nation’s victory. “It’s madness … look how she [the World Cup] is, she’s gorgeous. I wanted her so much. I had a vision that this would be the one … she was getting closer.”
Messi opened the scoring for the Argentinians with a 23rd-minute penalty while Angel Di Maria doubled his team’s lead before half-time. With the game seemingly headed for a clear Argentinian victory, France was awarded a penalty in the 80th minute, with Kylian Mbappe putting the French on the scoreboard. Mbappe doubled his tally a minute later to send the game into extra time.
While Messi scored Argentina’s third in the 108th minute, Mbappe converted yet another penalty with two minutes left on the clock to send the game to a penalty shootout.
This is Argentina’s third World Cup victory, with the nation last winning the tournament in 1986.
