Sports News | Live Updates | Argentina Plays France in World Cup Final
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. The Latest from the World Cup final between Argentina and France:
Lusail, Dec 18 (AP) The Latest from the World Cup final between Argentina and France:
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Argentina has a 2-0 lead against France at half-time in the World Cup final after goals by Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria.
Messi scored on a 23rd-minute penalty kick after a foul on Di Maria. Thirteen minutes later Di Maria finished off a flowing team move involving a deft flick from Messi.
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Messi now has 12 World Cup goals — the same as Brazil great Pelé — and is the first player to score in the group stage and every round of the knockout stage in a single edition of the tournament.
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Angel Di Maria has made it 2-0 for Argentina in the World Cup final.
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Lionel Messi has scored on a penalty to make it 1-0 for Argentina against France. It was Messi's 12th World Cup goal.
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Lionel Messi is making a record 26th appearance at the World Cup, breaking a tie with Germany great Lothar Matthäus.
Messi's games have been spread over five World Cups, starting in 2006. He has 11 goals in total, tied for sixth in the all-time list.
Messi has said this is likely to be his last World Cup.
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The 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and defending champion France has started.
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French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived at Lusail stadium for the World Cup final.
About 45 minutes before kickoff, Macron was chatting in the VVIP section with Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who played for four seasons at Paris Saint-Germain, and France midfielder Paul Pogba, who has had to watch the entire World Cup from the sidelines due to an injury.
Pogba scored in the final when France won the 2018 World Cup but was not fit for selection at this tournament.
Macron also attended the final four years ago, when France beat Croatia 4-2, and later celebrated with players in the locker room.
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The closing ceremony for the World Cup featured artists from around the world performing songs from the official soundtrack of the tournament in Qatar.
The performers at Lusail stadium included Nigerian singer Davido and Qatari-based songwriter Aisha, Congolese artist Gims and Puerto Rican reggaeton singer Ozuna.
The show, featuring fireworks and a light show, was meant to celebrate the world coming together for the monthlong tournament in the Gulf emirate.
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Lionel Messi will lead an Argentina team containing Angel Di Maria, who starts for the first time since sustaining a foot injury against Poland in the final round of group games.
Di Maria takes the place of Leandro Paredes in midfield as Argentina again rolls out a 4-4-2 formation, with Messi one of the two forwards. Nicolas Tagliafico is preferred to Marcos Acuña at left back.
Kylian Mbappé starts up front for France alongside Olivier Giroud, who has overcome a minor knee injury. Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot come in for Ibrahima Konaté and Youssouf Fofana, respectively.
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The lineups for the World Cup final:
Argentina: Emiliano Martínez; Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, Nicolás Otamendi, Nicolas Tagliafico; Angel Di Maria, Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernández, Alexis Mac Allister; Julián Álvarez, Lionel Messi.
France: Hugo Lloris; Jules Koundé, Raphael Varane, Dayot Upamecano, Theo Hernandez; Aurélien Tchouaméni, Antoine Griezmann, Adrien Rabiot; Ousmane Dembélé, Kylian Mbappé, Olivier Giroud.
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Blue, white and red face paint is being applied and Champagne is on ice as France collectively crosses fingers and toes in hopes that Les Bleus will win their third World Cup title by beating Argentina.
French TV carried live images of the France team leaving its hotel in Qatar en route for the championship match and of the players arriving at the stadium. Among them, a smiling Kylian Mbappé looked particularly relaxed.
In Paris, the Metro operator marked the momentous occasion by temporarily renaming one of its stations, changing the stop “Argentina” to “Argentina-France, let's go les Bleus!"
Players past and present sent messages of support.
“Playing a World Cup final is a childhood dream. Let's go and get this third star! Allez les Bleus!” Zinedine Zidane posted on Instagram.
Striker Karim Benzema, the Ballon d'Or winner who missed this World Cup with a torn left-thigh muscle, posted: “The hour is come. All together. Let's go.”
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World Cup final referee Szymon Marciniak is the first from Poland to handle the title game.
Marciniak, 41, missed working at the European Championship last year due to a heart problem.
“Only I and my team know how difficult of a time it was for me,” Marciniak said of his Tachycardia illness from which he has now recovered.
Marciniak has refereed both finalists already in Qatar. He handled France's 2-1 win over Denmark in Group D and Argentina's 2-1 win against Australia in the round of 16.
One of his assistants in the final is following in his father's touchline steps. Tomasz Listkiewicz will hold a flag as an assistant running the line just as his father Michal did at the 1990 final in Rome, when defending champion Argentina lost 1-0 to West Germany.
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The World Cup champions will earn $42 million in prize money for their soccer federation while the losing team in the final will get $30 million from a FIFA prize fund of $440 million.
Not all the money goes to players, but they are expected to get a good chunk of it. France players such as Kylian Mbappé are in line to be paid a bonus of 554,000 euros ($586,000) by their federation for winning the final, French sports daily L'Equipe reported.
Third-place team Croatia earned $27 million in prize money and Morocco, which ended up in fourth, will be paid $25 million. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)