Argentina defeated France in the 2022 FIFA World Cup championships in Qatar on Sunday, winning 4-2 on penalties after normal time and extra time finished 3-3, ending years of heartbreaks, thesportsbay.com reports.
The now-three-time winners in 1978, 1988, and 2022 have been runners-up three times: in 1930, 1990 and 2014.
In the 22nd minute, Dembele brought down Di Maria in the box with the referee awarding a penalty to Argentina which was scored by Lionel Messi to become the first player to score in every round of a men’s World Cup.
With Messi putting Argentina ahead, it was all hands on deck for France as they hunt for an equaliser which failed to come and were punished by another goal from Angel Di Maria who beats Lloris from the left side to give Argentina a 2-0 lead.
Di Maria’s goal was the 48th of the knockout stages – a new record at World Cups with the previous highest goal tally during the knockout stages being the 47 scored in Russia in 2018.
Buoyed by the 2-goal lead, Argentina absolutely dominated the reigning world champions during the opening 45 minutes and continued the same at the restart of the second half.
With less than ten minutes remaining and out of nowhere, Mbappe struck two times to change the whole complexion of the match with the France supporters, though outnumbered making themselves heard, loud and clear.
With regulation time ending at 2-2 and getting into extra time, Messi came to the rescue for Argentina in the 108th minute to set up tense final minutes to make it 3-2. A few minutes later, Mbappe scored his hat trick to make it 3-3.
Meanwhile, Messi won the Golden Ball for the Best Player of the Tournament, Mbappe came second but did win the Golden Boot for the tournament’s top scorer with eight goals, one ahead of the Argentine skipper.
Luka Modric came third in the running for the Best Player and Argentina’s Emiliano Martinez took the Golden Glove for the World Cup’s best goalkeeper, while his compatriot Enzo Fernandez, 21, was named the Best Young Player.
Argentina earned $42 million as emerging champions, while France earned $30 million as runners-up. Morocco earned $25 million, while Croatia earned $27 million.
The teams that made it through to the round of 16 earned $17 million each, while the teams that exited the World Cup at the group stage all earned $9 million each.
