Argentina will compete in its sixth final on Sunday, but the road there hasn’t been an easy one for the Lionel Messi-led team.
At the Lusail Stadium on Sunday, the ongoing FIFA World Cup final will feature Argentina versus the reigning champions, France. The third World Cup victory for Argentina would be their first in 36 years. In 1978 and 1986, La Albiceleste won the championship, with the late great Diego Maradona playing a significant role in both victories. Argentina also made it to the finals in 1990 and 2014, but fell to Germany both times. Argentina will compete in its sixth final on Sunday, but the road there hasn’t been an easy one for the Lionel Messi-led team.
Argentina’s path to the World Cup championship is as follows:
Stage 1: Group
Argentina was put in Group C with Poland, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico.
Despite Messi handing the South American champions an early lead over Saudi Arabia, they lost their opening match 1-2.
Messi scored once more as Argentina overcame Mexico 2-0 in their second game.
Argentina defeated Poland 2-0 to win the group stage and claim first place thanks to goals from Julian Alvarez and Alexis MacAllister.
16th round (Argentina vs Australia)
Argentina had high hopes for the knockout rounds. Messi seized centre stage once more by scoring the game’s first goal against the Socceroos.
After Alvarez had put Argentina up 2-0, Australia came close to mounting a comeback.
Enzo Fernandez’s own goal gave Australia a chance to tie the score in the closing seconds of the game, but Emiliano Martinez had other ideas and made a key stop to advance Argentina.
Quarter-Final (Argentina versus Netherlands) (Argentina vs Netherlands)
Messi turned on yet another masterful performance, setting up Nahuel Molina for the game’s first goal and then converting a penalty kick to make it 2-0 for Argentina.
But to force a penalty shootout, the Netherlands gave Argentina everything they could handle in the final 15 minutes plus stoppage time.
Both goals for the Dutch came from replacement Wout Weghorst in the second half.
The intense match was spiced up even more by the Spanish referee Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz, who issued 18 cautions and one red card, notably to Dutch right-back Denzel Dumfries.
In the end, Argentina prevailed 4-3 on penalties.
Semi-Final (Argentina vs Croatia) (Argentina vs Croatia)
Croatia’s chances of making it to the final in back-to-back games were dashed by Argentina.
Although Argentina eventually defeated Croatia 3-0, it took them some time to accomplish so.
With Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic dominating terms in the middle of the field, Croatia initially did well to dictate the tempo of the game.
Alvarez was brought down by Croatia’s goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic within the penalty area, and Argentina was thus given a penalty.
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Argentina now has a 1-0 lead thanks to Messi, who went up to take the penalty kick and blasted his attempt beyond Livakovic.
Alvarez then scored twice to secure a commanding victory and a spot in the championship game.
