18 December 2022

By: Paulina Vairo

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Lionel Messi and Argentina win the World Cup for the first time since 1986. In a tournament that started rocky, Argentina prevailed with their captain leading them all the way to the finish line. With seven Ballon D’or’s, four Champions League titles, 10 LaLiga titles, one Ligue One title, and a Copa America trophy, Messi finally won the one award he was missing. However, it was not an easy journey.

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Argentina had an embarrassing defeat during their first group-stage match after a shocking loss to Saudi Arabia. Many had already begun to write them off as favorites and were on the verge of elimination. However, after beating Mexico and Poland, they fought back to finish first in Group C.

They struggled again against Australia in the Round of 16, but still came out on top. Then after a 2-0 lead to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, they allowed two goals to send it to penalties. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was the hero in that match to help send Argentina to the semifinals.

Argentina completely dominated Croatia in a 3-0 win to send them to the finals for the sixth time. Lionel Messi had a tournament of a lifetime, playing every minute and contributing to almost every Argentina goal. He had one game to win to finally step out of Maradona’s shadows and bring the trophy back to Argentina.

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What looked like an easy game for Argentina, turned out to be a brutal journey. After going up 2-0 early against France, La Albiceleste dominated most of the game, until a penalty kick call to France changed the game. Kylian Mbappe converted the penalty kick, then scored again a minute later to put France right back in it.

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Lionel Messi was not going to stop until he gets that trophy with a goal in the 108th minute. This did not last long with another penalty called for France to tie the game to send it to penalties. From there, Argentina prevailed and took the victory during penalties to win the World Cup over the reigning champions.

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Messi came a long way to win the World Cup, and it was not an easy voyage. When he lost three finals in a row between 2014-2016, he was scrutinized by the Argentinian media. After falling to Chile in the Copa America Finals in 2016, he announced he would not return to the national team, but later decided to come back.

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After winning his first trophy for Argentina last year in the Copa America Finals, Messi was determined to bring the World Cup trophy back to Argentina. Now he stands alone as one of the greatest in history by winning the most prestigious trophy in football. Messi is not the only one to thank for this World Cup win. Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez scored four goals in the tournament with an upstanding performance next to Messi. Veteran Angel Di Maria also helped secure the win for Argentina with his goal in the finals.

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The World Cup awards were also given out with Kylian Mbappe taking home the Golden Boot with eight goals. Messi takes home the Golden Ball for the best player in the tournament for the second time, the only player in history to win it twice. He’s also the only player in history to win five man of the match awards in a single World Cup. Emiliano Martinez wins the Golden Glove for best goalkeeper and Enzo Fernandez wins the best younger player of the tournament.

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Now that Lionel Messi won the World Cup, he will go down as the greatest Argentinian player of all time, taking the title from the great Maradona. France takes home second place after a hard fought out match with Mbappe scoring a hattrick to help keep France in it. However, it was Argentina to came out stronger in the end to deliver the country a World Cup for the first time in 37 years.

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(Article can also be seen on http://www.backsportspage.com/lionel-messi-and-argentina-win-the-world-cup-for-the-first-time-since-1986/ )