Argentina’s Journey to the Final Sunday final will be Argentina’s sixth, but the team led by Lionel Messi hasn’t had an easy journey.
At the Lusail Stadium on Sunday, Argentina will face France, the current champions, in the FIFA World Cup final. Argentina eyed a third World Cup win, and they’re first in quite a while. In 1978 and 1986, La Albiceleste won the title, with the late great Diego Maradona playing a significant role in both victories.
In 1990 and 2014, Argentina also reached the finals, but Germany defeated them both. Argentina will compete in its sixth final on Sunday, but the journey has not been smooth for the team led by Lionel Messi.
Argentina’s path to the FIFA World Cup final
Argentina’s path to the FIFA World Cup final is as follows:
Argentina was placed in Group Stage with Saudi Arabia, Poland, and Mexico in Group C.
Despite Messi giving the South American champions an early lead, their first match against Saudi Arabia ended in a 1-2 loss.
Messi scored once more in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Mexico in their second match.
Julian Alvarez and Alexis Mac Allister scored in Argentina’s third and final group match against Poland to give them a 2-0 victory and the top spot.
Argentina faced Australia in the round of 16 of the knockout stage with a lot of optimism. When he scored the first goal against the Socceroos, Messi once more took center stage.
After that, Alvarez gave Argentina a 2-0 lead, and Australia almost made a comeback.
After Australia got one back thanks to an own goal from Enzo Fernandez, they almost got even in the dying minutes, but Emiliano Martinez had other ideas and made a crucial save to get Argentina into the next round.
In the quarterfinal matchup between Argentina and the Netherlands, Messi delivered yet another masterclass by setting up Nahuel Molina to score the opening goal and then scoring from the penalty spot to give Argentina a 2-0 lead.
However, in the final 15 minutes of regulation and extra time, the Netherlands threw everything at Argentina, forcing the game to penalties.
For the Dutch, Wout Weghorst, who came on as a substitute in the second half, scored both goals.
With 18 bookings, including a red card for Dutch right-back Denzel Dumfries, Spanish referee Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz added flavor to the crucial match.
On penalties, Argentina prevailed 4-3 in the end.
Semi-Final (Argentina versus Croatia)
Argentina finished Croatia’s expectations of arriving at the last for the second time in as numerous releases.
Although the game ended 3-0, it took Argentina some time to eliminate Croatia.
Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic in the midfield dictated the terms of the game, and Croatia did well to control the pace of the game at first.
However, after Alvarez was brought down inside the box by Croatia’s goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic, Argentina was given a penalty.
Argentina took a 1-0 lead when Messi converted the penalty kick and beat Livakovic with his effort.
After that, Alvarez scored twice to secure a spot in the final and a comprehensive victory.