Lionel Messi fired Argentina to the World Cup in the most dramatic of finals against France – despite a Kylian Mbappe hat-trick.
Messi grabbed his second goal of the game with, tucking in a 108th-minute extra-time winner to spark utter chaos in Doha and Buenos Aires.
But with two minutes left, Mbappe sealed his treble as he dispatched his second penalty of the game.
And Argentina won the World Cup in the shootout as Gonzalo Montiel sealed it after Kingsley Coman and Aurelien Tchouameni missed.
Lionel Messi converted an early penalty to put Argentina in front after Ousmane Dembele’s foolish foul on Angel Di Maria.
And Di Maria turned finisher 13 minutes later as he rounded off a superb flowing team move.
France were utterly shell-shocked and completely out of the game, even making two substitutes before half-time.
But as the game threatened to fizzle out, Mbappe was determined to make his mark.
And he did it firstly in the 80th minute by just about sticking a penalty past Emi Martinez and 97 seconds later volleyed home emphatically for 2-2 in stunning scenes.
Suddenly Argentina were clinging on for extra-time – although Messi stung the palms of Hugo Lloris deep into injury-time in search for what would have been a sensational winner.
Dayot Upamecano made a crucial block to deny sub Lautaro Martinez a certain goal.
Messi’s second of the night was confirmed by goal-line technology AND VAR but that was not the end of the drama by any means.
Mbappe kept his cool from the spot and it had to be settled on spot-kicks.
