“The world final is another game. In a joint clash you want to show your qualities, but this is something else, it is a situation where everything is allowed. The difference between the Argentines and us is that they played like a world final. In every match, they strike,” said Ibrahima Konaté, Liverpool’s central player who scored the unforgettable Argentine 3-France 3 minutes after 112 minutes. It took several hours, one had to see, go back, review several incidents several times. In small letters, we fill nine pages with remarks and analyses. It was really fantastic. In legal terms, in real time, with stormy emotions, we miss a lot.

“I like to watch games from the perspective of time, outside the stadium. Completely new things are being discovered,” says Diego Torres, a great newspaper colleague Earth, from Madrid. And he adds: “That happened to me with the final between Brazil and Germany in 2002. I saw it again recently and I saw that Germany played much better than Brazil, something that was amazing to me, because Brazil was a great team and Germany was very limited. . And he won the first one with two talent hijacks”.

Well, we can telegraphically say that Argentina-France was the best definition in the history of the World Cup, because of the goals, the drama, the sensational maneuver of Di Maria’s goal, the fantastic definition of Mbappé in the partial tie 2-2, because of the extreme tension in the game, because of Messi’s outstanding performance , because of Argentina’s extraordinary play in the first 78 minutes of the match, because of France’s incredible equalizer in 60 seconds after he was dead, buried, cremated and his ashes thrown into the Seine. And because it lasted a total of 141 minutes and 13 seconds between regular, referee and overtime. Plus fines…! The longest final of the world championships.

Konaté’s is partially correct: Argentina met the final with a steel mentality, a strong and moderate foot. But it didn’t hit. He hit almost nothing, he went all out on every ball that was different. Konaté is 1.94 and 95 kilograms, he is a physical colossus like his teammates Upamecan (1.86 and 90 kg), Thuram (1.92 and 90 kg), Tchouameni (1.87 and 81), all… What do you think about Konaté if Messi (1.69) ), Mac Allister (1.74), Tagliafico (1.72) should face him…? They put character. Is it wrong, Conate…? There were clearly several strong fouls from the French side. There weren’t that many of them either. It was a clean final. There were two really strong actions by Cuti Romero, Giroud and Mbappé. Also one from Otamendi to Kolo Muani to punish him. Rabiot and Upamecano scored a heavy goal each. And Theo Hernández and Mbappé (both De Paulu). But, incredibly, the fiercest player who played was Kolo Muani. He entered like a fury and threw his leg, elbow, body into every friction. However, no one deserved to be kicked out.

Nor is “everything allowed” in the final. It’s the other way around, the only game where everything is hyper-controlled is the world final. The referee has played there his whole career. And the players take care of themselves like never before. Leaving the team with ten players in that case is a life sentence in front of the fans.

France was not champion because it did not have the courage of Argentina and, above all, because of Deschamps’ amarretism. Practicality was always out of his hands, he defended himself, waited, speculated, “let others spend, and we counterattack”. It worked against England and Morocco. It didn’t work that time. “Argentina played much better than France. Deschamps made a mistake in his approach. If he had started entering the Argentine field with those giants he has, he would have caused a lot of problems for Argentina. Because apart from Messi and a bit of Enzo Fernández, he didn’t have the level to start the game under pressure in his own half. If she had to make those first passes while drowning, it would have been very difficult for her. But Deschamps is very conservative and gave him space to then start a counterattack. He made a mistake, he allowed Argentina to have space, he breathed a sigh of relief. This brought the game to Messi’s court, where he is more comfortable. And that was the only place where Argentina could win the game”. Analysis by Diego Torres.

This meant that France almost never got to Dibu Martínez’s goal. We wrote at the end of the first half: “Bronze in France.” Giroud throws his diver on the bench. France: zero shots on goal, zero approaches, zero attacks. Outdone in everything. And minus 2-0″. In the 66th minute: “France still hasn’t made a single offensive maneuver, but the spirit spread by Upamecano and Kolo Muani is starting to fight in the game.” A second later, in the 67th minute and 25 seconds: “The previous world champion received a corner kick, a cross, Kolo Muani shoots with his head, but it is his first attack attempt.”

Messi has done wonders. It is perhaps the best final played by a football player in the annals of the World Cup. He intervened in exactly 59 actions, of which 47 were great, with sweet, millimeter passes, with an advantage, clarifying, making dangerous penetrations, always forward and deep. He also scored two goals and provided a key mark for Mac Allister on Di Maria’s goal. Lloris took a bomb from him above and another in the low corner. In one, he left Lautaro Martínez hand-in-hand with Lloris and made a beautiful play for the third goal… He created almost all of Argentina’s scoring chances, of which there were several. In the 122nd minute with 55 seconds left, he made an excellent save for Montiel, who kicked out a cross, and Lautaro headed wide. All positive, deep. Without him, Argentina had no chance.

On the other hand, what happened to Mbappé is very strange: he was practically absent until the 80th minute, when he scored the first penalty. Then he finished brilliantly in the second, but intervened very little in the game, exactly 19 times, most of them unsuccessfully. None of his attempts to dribble or pass came to fruition. Likewise, whenever he faced it, he created fear. That was relentlessly blocked by Cuti Martínez, with a great game. To say that the footballer who scored three goals in the final (two of them from penalties) had a discreet performance seems nonsense, but he did not stand out and was absent for a very long time. “His was very discreet,” agrees Diego Torres.

The one who changed the boss of the French team was Randal Kolo Muani, an untamed lion, a warrior who, contrary to the general apathy of France, with his team beaten and discouraged, went forward like a bull, forced, changed the game and the blue reaction began. His was dedicated. “If someone talks bad about Kol because of that play at the end that the goalkeeper is covering, I will fight him,” says Konaté. And we agree with him 100% here.

In the 77th minute and 30th second, the Argentine fans, who roared through the stadium, started “Ole, Ole…” because it was a real dance. In the 78th minute and 12 seconds, Otamendi’s penalty kick hit Kolo Muani. And there began another match, with an exceptional vibe, in which dance almost won. That’s football. (OR)