World Cup 2022 reaction LIVE: Lionel Messi will ‘carry on’ as Karim Benzema steps down from France duties

It was the country’s third World Cup title, and the first since 1986.

“I am very happy, we really deserved it. The team suffered a lot, but they recovered over time,” said Josefina Villalba, a 55-year-old nanny who joined hundreds of fans in one of the many public squares where giant screens were displayed. installed to watch the long-awaited match.

Millions of Argentines cried, screamed and hugged as they watched the game, which was a roller coaster of emotions.

“I feel immense happiness in my heart because this is the first World Cup that I really enjoy,” said Hector Quinteros, a 34-year-old security guard, his eyes filling with tears. “It always happens. They always make us suffer.

the AstonVilla The keeper has won four successive shootouts for club and country, his last defeat dating back to 2019 when he was with Arsenal.

Argentina beat the Netherlands and France on penalties to seal their World Cup triumph, with Martinez front and center.

He saved from Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis against the Dutch, scoring the second save with a jig of joy, and also denied Frenchman Kingsley Coman.

Aurelien Tchouameni then fired wide – but only after having to win the ball back with a wry smile after Martinez threw it around the corner of the penalty area. The Argentine keeper was later shown a yellow card in the shootout for his continued antics ahead of Randal Kolo Muani’s successful attempt.

Argentina’s Messi finally got his hands on the trophy in his record-breaking 26th appearance at the tournament, but not before France’s Mbappe became the first man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final since Sir Geoff Hurst in 1966.

Messi’s seven goals took him to 13 in total, the most by an Argentine player and fourth on the all-time list.

Mbappe, who turns 24 on Tuesday, is expected to surpass him after scoring eight times in Qatar to take his tally to 12 from 14 appearances.

The two number 10s were one step ahead of everyone else at the tournament, with Mbappe the top scorer and Messi the best player in what is expected to be his final World Cup.

It had looked like France didn’t show up when Argentina took a two-goal lead, but Blues responded as Mbappe netted twice in two minutes before equalizing again in extra time.

Given that France were champions four years ago and the result allowed Messi to win the World Cup for the first time, national newspapers instead reflected on the contribution they played to making the final the greatest of all time.

Emiliano Martinez, world champion. It might have seemed far-fetched four years ago when he sat in the stands as one more Argentinian fan in Russia, watching France win 4-3 in an epic Cup knockout tie. of the world.

There, Martinez had told his brother sitting next to him that he would play in the next World Cup. It was ambitious to say the least. He was then 25, coming on as a substitute at Getafe on his sixth loan from Arsenal; another followed at Reading where his status rose, before an unlikely opportunity opened up at Arsenal when Bernd Leno suffered a freak injury.

In 2021, he was Argentina’s No.1 goalkeeper. Soon he was Copa America champion, his vital saves to deny Richarlison and others at the end of a tense final at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, the location where Lionel Messi and co had lost the Cup final of the world in 2014. Martinez was central to their salvation.

The best world cup of all time, Gianni Infantino had said. It has been found FifaA president’s propagandist simply lacked a word. The best World Cup final of all time? The case grew stronger as the game became more illogical, more credibility-defying, more dramatic.

France’s responses – two goals in two minutes of chaos, another in the 118th minute – marked the greatest comeback in the history of a World Cup final.

The streets of Lionel Messi’s hometown of Rosario erupted after the game against Argentina on Sunday France football to win their third 2022 World Cup title.

“We are champions, that’s all we wanted, more than anything for (Messi) and for the whole team,” 25-year-old Santiago Ferraris said.

Rosario, like the rest of the country, was crippled in the fierce game that ended in a penalty shootout, Argentina won 4-2.

France coach Didier Deschamps has said he will meet with the French Football Federation in the new year before deciding whether to continue in charge of the national team.

The Blues twice came from behind to force the World Cup final into a penalty shootout with Kylian Mbappe bagging a brace in under two minutes to lead the game into extra time before netting a hat-trick to nullify a supposed winner by Leo Messi.

Deschamps, who led France to back-to-back World Cup finals as head coach, said he would have reassessed his future regardless of the end result.

“Even if we had won, I wouldn’t have been able to answer that question tonight,” Deschamps said when asked about his future plans.

“Of course I’m very sad for all my players and my staff but I will have a meeting with the president early next year and then you will know.”

The 35-year-old striker, who has won 97 international caps for France and ranks fifth on their all-time goalscoring list with 37 goals, also played no part in their 2018 World Cup victory.

Benzema was not selected by France for six years, between 2015 and 2021, for his role in an alleged blackmail plot against international team-mate Mathieu Valbuena.

The Real Madrid captain has been recalled by the French coach Didier Deschamps for the Euro 2020 final last summer, which also came amid the best form of his career.

Kylian Mbappe and his teammates, who left Qatar on Monday, should go to Place de la Concorde in the evening to greet the supporters, according to a press release from the French Football Federation.

Unlike 2018, when France won the World Cup in Russia, the players will not have marched on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées.

In his first post on Instagram and Twitter after Sunday’s loss, Mbappe posted a picture of himself with his head down behind the World Cup trophy with the message: “We will be back”.

More than 24 million people – eight out of 10 viewers – watched the final on French television TF1, a record.