[ad_1]
Key events
While we’re on the subject of music, here are the national anthems that’ll stir the soul before kick-off. As Vanesa Valenti of La Nacion wrote in our pre-tournament guide to Argentina …
The Himno Nacional Argentino was written by the clearly multi-talented politician Vicente López y Planes and the music composed by Blas Parera and approved by the general constituent assembly in 1813. Initially it included a strong anti-Spanish sentiment, which was taken out in 1924. It starts “Hear, mortals, the sacred cry: ‘Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!’ Hear the sound of broken chains. See noble equality enthroned.” But because of the anthem’s length often at sporting events only the instrumental intro is played.
… and as Adam White and Eric Devin write for Get French Football News wrote in our pre-tournament guide to France …
An early (the earliest?) example of the “European march” style of anthems, La Marseillaise is arguably the world’s most recognisable and stirring. Written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg, its lyrics were meant to encourage soldiers to defend France against foreign incursions. It gained its popular name when it was adopted by soldiers who marched from Marseille to Paris to aid in the capital’s defence, and became the anthem in 1795. While it was later banned under Napoleon, it was reinstalled permanently in the late 19th century.
The closing ceremony has taken place. A celebratory “mash-up of songs from the World Cup Qatar 2022 Official Soundtrack” performed by Aisha, Ozuna, Gims, Nora Fatehi, Balqees, Rahma Riad and Manal. Tracks included Hayya Hayya (Better Together), Arhbo, Sepp’s Gonna Sexx Ya Up, Gianni’s Gotta Grind and Light the Sky.
Today’s referee, Szymon Marciniak, will become the first Pole to take charge of a World Cup final. The 41-year-old has already officiated matches involving Argentina and France during this World Cup. In the groups, he took charge of France 2-1 Denmark, booking Jules Koundé for standing on Victor Nelsson’s ankle, while in the round of 16 he whistled his way through Argentina 2-1 Australia without dishing out a single card.
Marciniak has quite the back story, as Robert Holmes explains: “I’ll be watching today’s game in Dublin with my good friend from Poland, Karolina. She’s not just a football nut, she also into referees (no idea) and is particularly excited for today’s game due to the man in the middle, Szymon Marciniak, hailing from her native land.
“She’s been telling me his origin story: as an undisciplined amateur player, he picked up a red card and gave the ref some backchat. The ref in question duly gave him the old ‘if you think you’re so clever why don’t you become a ref and show us how it’s done’ line. Challenge accepted, this he duly did and today he’s reffing the biggest match of them all. I can tell you, this Pole sitting beside me here is bursting with pride.”
Lionel Messi makes his 26th appearance for Argentina at the World Cup finals, breaking the all-time men’s record in doing so. There’s only one change to their starting XI from the semi-final against Croatia. Angel Di Maria – who hadn’t started since the group win over Poland, and played only eight minutes in the quarter-final victory over the Netherlands – takes the place of Leandro Paredes as Lionel Scaloni moves to a 4-3-3.
France coach Didier Deschamps goes back to the 4-2-3-1 starting XI named for the quarter-final victory over England. Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot both return having recovered from a virus, meaning Ibrahima Konaté and Youssouf Fofana step down. Hugo Lloris becomes the first goalkeeper to make 20 appearances at the finals.
The teams
Argentina: Emiliano Martinez, Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico, Di Maria, De Paul, Fernandez, Mac Allister, Messi, Alvarez.
Subs: Armani, Foyth, Montiel, Paredes, Pezzella, Acuna, Rulli, Palacios, Correa, Almada, Gomez, Rodriguez, Dybala, Lisandro Martinez, Lautaro Martinez.
France: Lloris, Kounde, Varane, Upamecano, Theo Hernandez, Tchouameni, Rabiot, Dembele, Griezmann, Mbappe, Giroud.
Subs: Pavard, Disasi, Guendouzi, Muani, Fofana, Veretout, Mandanda, Saliba, Coman, Areola, Konate, Camavinga, Thuram.
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (Poland).
The golden boot. Four players in this match are in with a shout of ending the tournament as the leading scorer. If two or more players finish with the same number of goals, assists will decide the winner. If that doesn’t produce a result, the player with the fewest minutes played will bag the prize.
5 goals
Lionel Messi (Argentina): three assists, 570 minutes played
Kylian Mbappe (France): two assists, 477 minutes played
4 goals
Julian Alvarez (Argentina): no assists, 364 minutes played
Olivier Giroud (France): no assists, 383 minutes played
Only four players have scored in more than one World Cup final: Vavá (1958 and 1962), Pelé (1958 and 1970), Paul Breitner (1974 and 1982) and Zinedine Zidane (1998 and 2006). Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappé, both on the scoresheet in 2018. have a chance to add their name to that exclusive list tonight.
The Fifa World Cup roll of honour. Should Argentina win, they’ll become the first country from outside Europe to lift the trophy since Brazil, 20 years ago in Japan. Should France prevail, they’ll be the first side to retain the trophy since Brazil, 60 years ago in Chile. Either way, someone will be winning their third World Cup, which will fill the currently vacant 3 slot on this list, therefore making it more structurally pleasing to the eye.
5: Brazil (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)
4: Italy (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), Germany (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014)
2: Uruguay (1930, 1950), Argentina (1978, 1986), France (1998, 2018)
1: England (1966), Spain (2010)
The head-to-head between the countries reads Argentina six wins, France three, and three draws. Eight of those games were friendlies, however, while another was a goalless draw at a 1972 tournament designed to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Brazilian Declaration of Independence. Let’s not go down any of those rococo rabbit holes, and instead concentrate on the three showdowns that really matter: the only previous times Argentina and France have met at the World Cup.
1930: Argentina 1-0 France
The French had just beaten Mexico 4-1 in a match that kicked off concurrently with USA-Belgium in another group; those two games were the first-ever World Cup matches. Two days on, they faced a fresher Argentina, and as if being knackered wasn’t enough, were effectively down to ten men after two minutes when Luisito Monti crocked Lucien Laurent (who clearly had used up all his luck when scoring the first-ever World Cup goal against Mexico). Monti went on to score the game’s only goal from a direct free kick nine minutes from time. Argentina went on to lose in the final.
1978: Argentina 2-1 France
A pivotal game in a group also containing Italy and Hungary. Marius Trésor was in the process of tackling Leopoldo Luque while falling over when the ball hit his arm from close range. Daniel Passarella dispatched the controversially awarded penalty on the stroke of half time. Michel Platini equalised on the hour, following home after Bernard Lacombe’s delicate chip over keeper Ubaldo Fillol came back off the bar. The decider came on 73 minutes when Luque crashed home from the edge of the box. France were on their way back home, Argentina en route to the title.
2018: France 4-3 Argentina
It was Kylian Mbappé’s time. Had Lionel Messi’s passed?
Preamble
Welcome to the Guardian’s minute-by-minute coverage of the 64th and final match of the 22nd Fifa World Cup: Argentina versus France. One of these great footballing nations will tonight win the biggest prize of all for the third time in their illustrious history. It’ll be Argentina’s sixth appearance in the final; France will compete in their fourth. Where shall we begin, then? There’s only one place …
1930: Uruguay 4-2 Argentina
… and it’s the first-ever World Cup final at the Centenario in Montevideo! Argentina led Uruguay 2-1 at half time through winger Carlos Peucelle and pencil-moustached striker Guillermo Stábile, but the hosts came back at them in the second half. Héctor Castro, who lost half an arm to a chainsaw while a teenager, crowned a 4-2 win for Uruguay. Stábile would have to make do with being the tournament’s leading scorer. Argentinian midfielder Juan Evaristo played this match in a beret.
1978: Argentina 3-1 Netherlands (aet; 1-1 after 90 mins)
Argentina 78 was every bit as controversial as Qatar 22, played against a grim backdrop: General Videla’s military junta, the Disappeared, accusations of bribery. Step in self-proclaimed socialist César Luis Menotti, the manager doing it for the people. His efforts nearly didn’t get their reward, Netherlands striker Rob Rensenbrink coming within the width of the left-hand post of winning the final for the Dutch in injury time. Argentina escaped, and Mario Kempes spurred the hosts to extra-time victory on a pitch littered with ticker tape. Argentina finally got their hands on the World Cup, nearly half a century after coming so close first time around.
1986: Argentina 3-2 West Germany
This was a fairly one-sided affair for 74 minutes, Jose Luis Brown and Jorge Valdano putting Argentina two goals up. But then a couple of Andy Brehme corners from the left turned the game. First Karl-Heinz Rummenigge tapped home, then Rudi Voller scrambled an equaliser for West Germany on 82 minutes. The game was suddenly in the balance … for three minutes, after which the previously quiet but utterly irrepressible Diego Maradona slipped a delightful through ball to Jorge Burrachaga, who had an awful long time to think about missing, but didn’t. Argentina had their second World Cup, a mere eight years after claiming their first.
1990: West Germany 1-0 Argentina
Argentina at Italia ‘90 is one of the great under-rated World Cup campaigns. Maradona sashayed through the entire tournament metaphorically flicking Vs left, right and centre. He turned goalkeeper against the USSR and got away with it. He did for fierce rivals Brazil with one of the great assists, setting up Claudio Caniggia while being mugged and playing with a dodgy foot. He missed a quarter-final penalty against Yugoslavia, but then in the semi at his home club ground in Naples, put another in exactly the same place to knock out Italy, a country he’d nearly plunged into civil war during the run-up to the game with some hilariously brazen north-south divide-and-rule you-belong-to-me mind games. The final was a step too far, however. West Germany were too good, and the referee wasn’t having any of Pedro Monzon and Gustavo Dezotti’s nonsense. Off you go, lads. Thanks to a late Brehme penalty, the Germans had their third World Cup. Argentina could console themselves with having irritated purists and hipsters worldwide. Hats off to them for that. A bravura performance.
1998: France 3-0 Brazil
France had twice previously fallen at the semi-final stage in spectacular fashion: 5-2 to Brazil in 1958, in a game in which Vavá crocked captain Robert Jonquet after 26 minutes; then in 1982 on penalties after an exhilarating 3-3 draw with West Germany, during which Toni Schumacher nearly killed Patrick Battiston. They’d also failed to turn up for the semi-final rematch with West Germany in 1986, but the less said about that 2-0 elongated yawn the better. So it was fourth semi lucky on home soil in 1998, when Lilian Thuram’s uncharacteristic goalscoring heroics turned things around against Croatia. Zinedine Zidane took up the attacking slack in the final against Brazil with a couple of first-half headers, Emmanuel Petit wrapping up a 3-0 win during the last knockings. The team became poster boys for the new multi-cultural France, and this may just be the first precis of the 1998 final that doesn’t take a deep dive into the subject of Ronaldo’s pre-match fitness.
2006: Italy 1-1 France (aet; 1-1 after 90 mins; Italy won 5-3 on pens)
Zinedine Zidane nearly missed a Panenka, then stuck the nut on Italy’s Marco Materazzi. Beauty is truth, truth beauty, and that is all ye need to know.
2014: Germany 1-0 Argentina (aet; 0-0 after 90 mins)
Argentina had laboured to a semi-final victory on penalties against the Netherlands, while Germany had done a number – specifically the number seven – on hosts Brazil. Lionel Messi wasn’t really at the top of his game during these finals, either, so with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, the result of this match seems inevitable. And yet. Gonzalo Higuain missed a golden chance to put Argentina ahead in the first half. He had an effort disallowed for offside. Rodrigo Palacio floated a chip off target while one on one with Manuel Neuer. Messi duelled with Neuer as well, only to drag dismally wide. Mario Goetze made them pay. To add insult to injury, an understandably seething Messi was forced to hang around interminably post-defeat to be presented with the player-of-the-tournament award. Oh Sepp. How could you be so tactless.
2018: France 4-2 Croatia
The highest-scoring final since 1966 had pretty much everything. Mario Mandžukić scored the first-ever own goal in the showpiece’s history. Ivan Perisic equalised for Croatia with a pearler. France regained the lead through VAR, then pulled away with a spectacular quickfire second-half double through Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé. Hugo Lloris handed Mandžukić a little redemption on a plate, after which the heavens opened during the trophy presentation on Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and her French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. Vladimir Putin was given an umbrella to stand under, though, the wee nyaff.
So that’s the historical context as the 2022 final looms. Not long now! Kick-off is at 3pm GMT, 7pm at the Lusail Iconic Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, midday in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and 4pm in Paris, France. يحدث! It’s on!
[ad_2]
Source link