DOHA. The Argentina of Messi, but also of De Paul and Molina is world champion. They overcame France in the final at the end of a game full of twists and turns and which only ended on penalties.
Ten minutes from the 90th minute, Albiceleste led 2-0 thanks to goals by Pulce (from a penalty) and Di Maria in the first half. Those who expected a reaction from the transalpines in the second half were disappointed until the 80th minute, in fact, when Mbappè placed a deadly one-two. On the second goal, Molina’s too passive attitude in the one-two between the French champion and Thuram was not flawless.
So we went to extra time and the challenge between Messi and Mbappè continued once again each: 3-3 and off to the penalty shoot-out where the god of football tipped the balance in favor of Argentina. Rightly so because in the psychologically most difficult moment for the South Americans they were able to react. In the 30′ of over time we witnessed continuous reversals in front: Argentina could score, France could score.
So there is a slice of Udinese up there at the top of the world. The two former Bianconeri, now playing for Atletico Madrid, were protagonists of the final but a bit of the Albiceleste’s entire journey in Qatar. After the first defeat against Saudi Arabia they had ended up in the sights of the Argentine media who had defined them as a sort of 50 million flop (this is more or less the amount spent by the Spanish club to snatch them from Udinese). Then little by little Argentina began to get back on track: 2-0 on 26 November against Mexico with goals in the second half from Messi and Enzo Fernandez. Halfway through the second half the result was still 0-0, with an equal the Argentina World Cup would have ended well in advance. Then came the success against Poland, less trivial than one might think because it allowed Messi and his teammates to win the group and avoid France in the round of 16 who they then found in the final.
But it was in the knockout contests that De Paul and Molina raised the bar of their game. Don Rodrigo is an all-rounder in the national team, quality and quantity in equal doses. Molina, in the fourth with the Netherlands, practically acted as a winger and in fact even scored the 1-0 goal (his first for the national team).
The match against the oranges is similar to the final: from 2-0 to 2-2, then extra time and penalties. The “simplest” match was the semi-final against Croatia: a clear and unequivocal 3-0.
Today Messi can say that he has won a World Cup like Maradona, we will not go into the comparison between the two. Rather let’s congratulate De Paul and Molina who brought a piece of yesterday’s Udinese to the top of the world.