Argentina wins World Cup for the third time in history and Messi rises Maradona’s pedestal

Argentina was crowned three-time world football champion last Sunday and Lionel Messi finally clim-bed to Diego Maradona’s pedestal, by beating France in the penalty shoot-out (4-2), in a final from World Cup which will be remmbered forever.

Scorer of two goals in the game in Lusail, Qatar, Messi was chosen as the best player in the competition, after leading Argentina to its third world title, repeating the successes of 1978 and 1986, the latter thanks to the illuminated hand and foot of Maradona, to whom the compatriot definitely owes nothing.

The ‘hat-trick’ of the supersonic Kylian Mba-ppé revived several times a French team on the verge of fainting, even finishing as the tournament’s top scorer, with eight goals, but it was the Argentine striker who scored – aged 35 and in his last breath in World Cups – encounter with history.

Messi opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, with a penalty, and seemed to have sentenced the game in extra time, in the 108th minute, but Mbappé revived the terrible memories of the 2014 World Cup, in which the scepter slipped through the fingers of the Argentine star, defeated in the final by Germany , 1-0, also after extra time.

The Pampas team had already built a promising lead at half-time (2-0), with Di Maria extending the lead in the 36th minute, before Mbappé rescued his selection once, with a ‘double’ just within range of his speed , at 80 and 81, and another, near the end of extra time, at 118, the first and last penalty.

Mbappé and Messi took the first shots in the penalty shoot-out and lived up to their status, but Coman allowed goalkeeper Emiliano Martí-nez, another of the Ar-gentine heroes, to save, and Tchouaméni shot wide, with Montiel ending an irreproachable demonstration of Argentine effectiveness.