The way to the final of Messi - Mbappe in the World Cup 2022
* Argentina - France: 10pm Sunday, December 18, on MetaSports.
When Zinedine Zidane and France lifted the Golden Cup at the Stade de France on July 13, 1998, Mbappe was still in the womb. But 20 years later, he can bring "Les Bleus" to the championship in the second World Cup in a row, if he can beat Lionel Messi - who is also desperate to win the prestigious Cup that he has never reached in his career. career, and helped Argentina crowned for the third time.
To join the Lusail field this weekend, Mbappe has gone through a journey of promotion at rocket speed. In December 2015, he made his debut for Monaco at the age of 16 years and 347 days. At that time, Messi was on the way to conquering the fourth Champions League of his career, and was about to take the throne in the FIFA Club World Cup to forget the disappointment of losing to Chile in the Copa America final a few months ago.
A year later, Mbappe became a key element of Monaco on the way to the Ligue 1 championship, with France U19 winning the European championship. At the same time, Messi won the fifth Ballon d'Or in his career, making up for the pain of losing the second Copa America final in a row on the occasion of this tournament's 100th anniversary.
In 2017, Mbappe hit an important milestone in his career when he was first called up and played for France in March, before going to PSG in the summer. Messi was still regularly breaking personal records in Spain.
The 2018 World Cup saw the first duel between the two. France beat Argentina 4-3 with Mbappé's double in the round of 16, while Messi's South American team suffered from internal conflicts during the tournament in Russia.
In 2019, Messi won his sixth Ballon d'Or with another great individual performance. In France, Mbappe became an idol both at the national team and at PSG - where he won the second Ligue 1 title in his career.
In the summer of 2021, Messi was finally able to relieve the pressure of winning titles with Argentina by winning the Copa America in Brazil. In contrast, Mbappe first tasted bitter fruit at the national team level at a major tournament when he himself missed the decisive penalty that caused France to be eliminated by Switzerland in the 1/8 Euro round.
Leaving that disappointment aside, both of them aspire to close 2022 by winning the World Cup. So far, both have played a decisive role in bringing their teams to the finals.
Messi scored five goals in six matches, shooting continuously in the knock-out stage, with one goal per match against Australia in the round of 16, the Netherlands in the quarter-finals and Croatia in the semi-finals. Mbappe also owns five goals, but was silent after a brace in the 3-1 defeat of Poland in the 1/8 round. However, the striker will turn 24 years old on December 20, still making a very good contribution to the team's further journey.
In the assist category, Messi is leading with French striker Antoine Griezmann with three lanes. Mbappe is second, with just one line behind.
Today's final will be the fourth confrontation between Messi and Mbappe, and an opportunity for the 35-year-old Argentine superstar to enjoy the joy of victory over the French juniors for the first time.
After meeting for the first time in the round of 16 of the World Cup four years ago, they also met two more times in the round of 16 of the Champions League in the 2020-2021 season. In the first leg, PSG won 4-1 with Mbappe's hat-trick, while Messi scored the only goal for Barca. In the second leg, only Messi scored when the two teams drew 1-1.
