How special is the 2022 World Cup final?

* Argentina - France: 10pm on December 18, on MetaSports.

Before Qatar 2022, Argentina has reached the World Cup final 5 times. In the first World Cup in 1930, they lost to host Uruguay with a score of 2-4. After that, Argentina enjoyed two consecutive victories when they defeated the Netherlands 3-1 at home in 1978, and then defeated West Germany 3-2 in Mexico 1986.

In Italy four years later, West Germany avenged by bringing down Argentina thanks to Andreas Brehme's penalty kick. Similar results took place in Brazil in 2014, when Lionel Messi and his teammates lost 0-1 to Germany because of Mario Gotze's goal in extra time. Compared to the World Cup, Argentina's record in the Copa America finals is better, with 15 wins and 14 losses.

France has also won the World Cup twice, although less than Argentina in the final. The European representative was first crowned at home in 1998, when he defeated Brazil - then the defending champion - with a score of 3-0 thanks to a double from Zinedine Zidane and a goal from Emmanuel Petit.

At the 2006 World Cup final, Zidane continued to shoot with a panenka-style penalty kick at 7 minutes. More than 10 minutes later, midfielder Marco Materazzi headed the equalizer for Italy. The highlight of the rest was the fact that Zidane headbutted Materazzi in the chest and received a red card directly in extra time. Without Zidane, France could not maintain an overwhelming position and then lost to Italy 3-5 in the penalty shootout.

In 2018, France was crowned again after another overwhelming victory, when it crushed Croatia 4-2 in Moscow, Russia. Coach Deschamps' army was then "given" by the opponent to open the scoring from an own goal by Mario Mandzukic. The remaining three goals of "Les Bleus" were scored by Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe.

On December 14, France "deciphered" the phenomenon of Morocco with a 2-0 victory in the semi-finals thanks to two close-range shots by Theo Hernandez and Randal Kolo Muani. Thanks to that, they repeated the feat of reaching the World Cup finals in two consecutive periods of Italy (1934-1938), Brazil (1958-1962), the Netherlands (1974-1978) and Argentina (1986-1990).

If they continue to reach the finals in the US - Mexico - Canada in 2026, France will become the third team to reach the finals of three consecutive World Cups, after Germany (1982-1986-1990) and Brazil (1994-1998-2002). . Four years later, stars like Kylian Mbappe, Aurelien Tchouameni, Eduardo Camavinga, Christopher Nkunku or Theo Hernandez are still at the peak of their careers.

But in the immediate future, France will aim to be the third team to successfully defend the World Cup title, after Italy (1934-1938) and Brazil (1958-1962). If this is done, Didier Deschamps will re-establish the record of winning the World Cup twice in a row of the late coach Vittorio Pozzo - who led Italy to two world championships in 1934 and 1938.

Deschamps is now one of only three people to have won the World Cup as a player and as a coach, alongside Mario Zagallo of Brazil and Franz Beckenbauer of Germany. Before leading his hometown team to victory at the 2018 World Cup, Deschamps was the captain of the France team that won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, when he was a professional player.

To the 1/8 round of the 2018 World Cup, France took revenge in an emotional 4-3 victory. After Antoine Griezmann kicked 11m to open the scoring, Angel Di Maria and Gabriel Mercado helped Argentina lead back. But Benjamin Pavard's masterpiece and Mbappe's double at the beginning of the second half helped France engulf Argentina. The South American representative only removed one more goal thanks to Sergio Aguero in the third minute of compensation.

Four years after that suffocating chase, France still has a pillar frame including goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, central defender Raphael Varane, strikers Griezmann, Mbappe, Olivier Giroud. In contrast, except for captain Messi, Argentina changed almost the entire squad when only Nicolas Otamendi, Nicolas Tagliafico and Di Maria remained. But Tagliafico and Di Maria did not have a starting position from the beginning of the tournament.

In total, the two teams have met 12 times, of which Argentina won 6, drew 3 and lost only 3 times to France. But this head-to-head record is only for reference before the final match at Lusail Stadium on December 18, when Argentina led by Messi met France with Mbappe as the leader. Both have the same ambition to win the third star on the chest of the team.