Qatar 2022 World Cup summit clash between Argentina and defending champions France, a summit clash between old and new champions Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe. Argentina is in the final again since 2014, and after 8 years of hard work, the team's morale is high; while France has reached the final 4 times in the last 7 World Cups, and is full of confidence. However, Argentina are seen as the favorites to win the tournament as they have been the first to break through in four of the five all-time meetings between the two sides. (Live on ViuTV99, Now 618 and 616 Sunday at 11pm)
Argentina's road to qualification was not a straight one, as it suffered an unexpected 1-2 loss to Saudi Arabia in its first match of the group stage, shocking the world soccer world. Luckily, the team quickly adjusted their mentality and won the next two matches against Mexico and Poland to advance to the top of the group. In the knockout stage, they were down by two goals at one point in their last 8 match against the Netherlands, but were able to force a draw at the end and eventually advanced through a penalty shootout. In their last 4 match against Croatia, Lionel Messi scored a cross and Zulian Ivaris scored twice to advance to the final with a 3-0 win. Looking back at the last six matches, Argentina have started all of them with a strong offense.
However, Argentina have conceded in five of their last six matches.
France broke the 20-year "crown defense curse" by finishing first in the group stage, beating Poland and England in the knockout stage, and eliminating Morocco 2-0 in the last four to reach the final. 5 wins and 1 loss in 6 matches, a strength that should not be underestimated. Another focus of the game is that Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi scored 5 goals each, and Chiote and Zulian Ivaris also contributed 4 goals each, all four are expected to become a strong contender for the Golden Boot Award, and the battle for the Golden Boot is also fierce.
Nevertheless, the French team was still affected by injuries and lacked two core players in the midfield, Paul Pouba and Nicolas Conde, which led to five goals conceded in the six matches in the promotion process, two of which were conceded first, showing that the back line is not impregnable. Kishavin, despite his performance, is not a strong point in defense. In addition, with news that Varane and Ibrahim Maganadi have been infected with viruses before the match, it seems inevitable that France will concede first against an aggressive Argentine team.
