Argentina vs France — 2022 World Cup Final
Overview
Argentina and France produced a 3–3 final at Lusail Stadium on 18 December 2022 before Argentina won 4–2 on penalties. Lionel Messi scored twice, Kylian Mbappé became only the second player to score a hat-trick in a men’s World Cup final, and Gonzalo Montiel converted the decisive shootout kick to give Argentina their third world title.
The stage and the stakes
The 2022 FIFA World Cup final brought together the reigning South American champions and the defending world champions at Lusail Stadium on Qatar’s National Day. Argentina arrived seeking a third world title and Lionel Messi’s first; France were trying to become the first men’s team since Brazil in 1962 to retain the World Cup. The match also concentrated the tournament’s individual storylines into one night: Messi and Kylian Mbappé, club team-mates at Paris Saint-Germain, entered the final as the two central attacking figures of the competition. Argentina had recovered from their opening defeat by Saudi Arabia to reach the final, while France had survived a demanding knockout path as holders. What followed was not a conventional final but a sequence of radically different games inside one 120-minute contest: long Argentine control, a sudden French revival, another Argentine lead, another Mbappé equaliser, a last-minute one-on-one save and then penalties.
Road to Lusail
Argentina’s path to Lusail was defined by recovery. Their tournament began with a 2–1 defeat by Saudi Arabia, one of the most startling results in World Cup history. From that point Scaloni’s team effectively played elimination football: victories over Mexico and Poland restored control of Group C, Australia were beaten 2–1 in the round of 16, and a volatile quarter-final against the Netherlands was won on penalties after Argentina surrendered a two-goal lead. The semi-final against Croatia was their clearest knockout performance, a 3–0 win built around Messi’s control of the game and Julián Álvarez’s running. France’s route was different. As defending champions they arrived with major injuries but quickly established themselves as one of the tournament’s strongest attacking teams. They beat Poland in the round of 16, survived England 2–1 in a high-level quarter-final, and defeated Morocco 2–0 in the semi-final. The final therefore paired a team that had grown through adversity with a champion trying to preserve its crown. It also reunited two players who had already shaped the tournament: Messi, chasing the one trophy that had eluded him, and Mbappé, already a world champion at 23 and attempting to win a second title before his 24th birthday.
Messi and Mbappé: two No. 10s, one final
The final is often remembered as Messi versus Mbappé because the two No. 10s ended up scoring five of the six goals and both converted in the shootout, but their influence came in different forms. Messi operated as Argentina’s organiser as much as its finisher. He dropped into midfield, helped initiate transitions and was involved in the move that produced Di María’s goal before scoring again in extra time. Mbappé spent long periods isolated as France struggled to progress the ball, yet when the game opened he became almost impossible to contain. His first penalty gave France life; his volley 97 seconds later changed the emotional direction of the match; his extra-time penalty completed the hat-trick. The contrast is part of what made the final so distinctive. Messi’s performance was cumulative, built through touches, combinations and control over the full game. Mbappé’s was explosive, concentrated into moments that repeatedly rescued France from defeat. Messi received the tournament’s Golden Ball and finally lifted the World Cup; Mbappé finished with the Golden Boot after eight goals. Rather than diminishing one another, their performances created a final in which both central stars delivered at the highest possible stakes.
The goalkeeper moments that decided the title
Goalkeepers were central to the final’s ending. Hugo Lloris faced three Argentine goals in open play and then a shootout in which Argentina’s takers were flawless. Emiliano Martínez, meanwhile, had relatively little to do during Argentina’s dominant opening phase but became decisive once France surged back. His most famous intervention came in the final seconds of extra time. Kolo Muani ran clear and drove a shot toward goal; Martínez delayed, spread his body and blocked with his left leg. It was effectively a title-saving action. In the shootout he then saved Coman’s penalty, while Tchouaméni put France’s next kick wide. Martínez’s influence illustrates how the final compressed different goalkeeper demands into a few decisive seconds: concentration through long quiet periods, one-on-one technique at maximum pressure, and shootout psychology. The save from Kolo Muani is now inseparable from Montiel’s winning penalty because the second moment could not have existed without the first.
Argentina take control
Argentina imposed the terms of the match from the opening phase. Scaloni restored Ángel Di María to the starting XI and placed him on the left, where France right-back Jules Koundé was repeatedly isolated. In the 21st minute Di María drove into the penalty area and Ousmane Dembélé made contact from behind; Szymon Marciniak awarded the penalty. Messi sent Hugo Lloris the wrong way in the 23rd minute. Thirteen minutes later Argentina produced the move that best captured their first-half superiority. A transition moved through Messi and Julián Álvarez before Alexis Mac Allister carried the attack forward and released Di María, who finished first time for 2–0. Didier Deschamps reacted before half-time, withdrawing Dembélé and Olivier Giroud in the 41st minute for Randal Kolo Muani and Marcus Thuram. It was an unusually early double change in a World Cup final and an admission that France’s original structure had failed to establish either pressure or attacking threat.
Mbappé changes the final in 97 seconds
For most of the second half Argentina still looked comfortable, but the final changed suddenly. In the 79th minute Nicolás Otamendi was caught goal-side by Kolo Muani and conceded a penalty. Mbappé converted in the 80th minute. Almost immediately France attacked again: Mbappé combined with Thuram and struck a first-time volley past Martínez in the 81st minute. The two goals came so quickly that a match Argentina had appeared to control became level before they could reset emotionally or tactically. France then played with greater aggression and width, while Argentina’s earlier energy advantage had disappeared. Messi forced a late save from Lloris, but normal time ended 2–2. Mbappé’s burst did more than equalise the score; it changed the psychological geometry of the final, turning France from a side apparently drifting out of the game into the team applying the greater late pressure.
Extra time: Messi, Mbappé and one last save
Argentina recovered in extra time and again began creating the clearer chances. In the 108th minute, Lautaro Martínez’s effort was parried and Messi forced the rebound over the line for 3–2. Goal-line confirmation settled the moment. France responded again. In the 116th minute Mbappé’s shot struck Montiel’s arm and Marciniak awarded another penalty. Mbappé converted in the 118th minute to complete his hat-trick and make it 3–3. The final still had one defining open-play moment left. Deep in stoppage time, Kolo Muani broke through one-on-one. Emiliano Martínez spread himself and blocked the shot with his left leg. Seconds later Lautaro Martínez headed wide at the other end. The save became one of the decisive images of Argentina’s title because without it there would have been no shootout and no third star.
The penalty shootout
How the final was played
Scaloni’s most important pre-match choice was the return of Di María and the decision to attack France’s right side aggressively. Argentina’s midfield of Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernández and Mac Allister controlled second balls and gave Messi freedom to move away from a fixed centre-forward position. France initially struggled to progress through Argentina’s pressure, and Deschamps’ double substitution before half-time changed both personnel and shape. Kolo Muani added direct running, Thuram stretched the left side and later Eduardo Camavinga gave France a more dynamic route forward from left-back. Argentina’s substitutions were designed first to protect control and later to restore attacking threat, with Lautaro Martínez central to the extra-time chances. The final therefore became a tactical contest in three acts: Argentina’s asymmetric first-half dominance, France’s high-tempo recovery, and an increasingly open extra-time game in which both teams could have won before penalties.
Key numbers
- Date
- 18 December 2022
- Venue
- Lusail Stadium, Lusail, Qatar
- Attendance
- 88,966
- Score
- Argentina 3–3 France after extra time
- Shootout
- Argentina won 4–2 on penalties
- Argentina Scorers
- Lionel Messi 23' (pen), 108'; Ángel Di María 36'
- France Scorer
- Kylian Mbappé 80' (pen), 81', 118' (pen)
- Argentina Title
- Third men’s World Cup title
- Player Of The Match
- Lionel Messi
- Global Audience
- Close to 1.5 billion people watched the final across platforms according to FIFA
World Cup in pictures
History
This foundation page connects Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Argentina, France, Lusail Stadium and the 2022 edition.
Historical overview
Argentina won 3–3 after extra time, 4–2 on penalties. The bare scoreline does not explain how dramatically the balance shifted. Lionel Scaloni’s side controlled most of the first 75 minutes, pressing France’s build-up and repeatedly finding Ángel Di María on the left. France had not registered a shot before the closing stages of normal time. Then two Mbappé goals in roughly a minute transformed the final. Extra time brought another Messi goal and another Mbappé penalty, making him the first player since Geoff Hurst in 1966 to score a men’s World Cup final hat-trick. The shootout turned on Emiliano Martínez’s save from Kingsley Coman and Aurélien Tchouaméni’s miss. Montiel’s fourth Argentine kick sealed the title. For Argentina, it ended a 36-year wait since Mexico 1986; for Messi, it completed the major international honour missing from his career; for Mbappé, defeat still produced one of the most extraordinary individual final performances in tournament history.
Legacy and identity note
The final immediately entered World Cup history because it combined elite individual performance with repeated reversals of control. Messi’s two goals and successful shootout kick became the closing argument of Argentina’s 2022 campaign, while Mbappé’s hat-trick ensured that France remained alive twice after appearing beaten. The match also changed the historical context around both national teams: Argentina ended a 36-year wait for the trophy and moved to three titles; France narrowly missed consecutive championships but confirmed the depth of the generation that had won in 2018. For Footballopedia, this page functions as the narrative anchor for the 2022 edition, connecting the tournament’s champion, runner-up, final venue and its two defining players. Child extraction and wider reciprocal cross-link expansion are deliberately deferred to the next pass so that this release remains a single-page flagship build.