After almost a month of madness, the 2022 World Cup has reached the finish line. France and Argentina meet in Qatar for the last game on the whole jackpot, and in the meantime quite a few interesting numbers have been determined.
Leo Messi’s penalty in the 24th minute made him the king of goals in the World Cup with six goals (4 from the penalty spot). Messi became the first ever to score and assist, cumulatively with 20 goals in World Cups. Messi is the second oldest player to score in the World Cup final after Sweden’s Nils Lidholm.
Messi became the first in history to score in the eighth, quarter, semi and final of the World Cup. It’s his first ever World Cup finals goal after not scoring in 2014. The flea equaled Miroslav Klose and the Brazilian Ronaldo as those who scored in 11 different games in the World Cup. This is Messi’s 12th goal in the World Cup and thus he equaled Pele.
Angel Di Maria, who scored the second goal, became the fourth player to score for Argentina in three different World Cups. The previous ones were Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta and Leo Messi.
With his entry into this game, Leo Messi overtook Luther Mathews to become the player with the most appearances ever at the World Cup, with his 26th appearance in football’s most prestigious tournament. At the same time, Hugo Lloris became the top scorer for a goalkeeper in the tournament. The French goalkeeper overtook Manuel Neuer, making his 20th appearance at the World Cup.
Argentina got a chance to become the second in World Cup history to lose in the opening round and win the tournament, after Spain did it in 2010. At the same time, the French team has a streak of seven knockout victories in the World Cup, with only Brazil (9) having a streak longer than that.
The one who started in the center of the defense of the tricolor is Raphael Veran. This is the 20th final of the French brakeman in all the frameworks of his career. His balance sheet so far? 17 wins and 2 losses.
In the center of attention, of course, are Messi and Mbappe. The two met each other three times throughout their career – in two of the games the Frenchman and his team won, in the third the two giants shared the points.
By the way, in the last ten World Cup finals that brought together two teams from South America and Europe, the South American teams won seven. On the other hand, in the previous final that brought together a South American team and a European team, Argentina was the one that came out disappointed with the 1:0 loss to Germany due to Mario Gotze’s goal in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.