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Worth noting that France was deeply unlucky. Virus hit the team just before the final. Benzema and Pogba missing. And Deschamps made some questionable decisions in my view.

And Mbappe still showed up and put in one of the most heroic performances I’ve ever seen in sports, basically carrying the entire team. Really looking forward to watching his career.

MBappe did carry his weight fully, despite his status, youth and the usual pressure of a WC final. It was a honourable defeat.

Surely the team was decimated, such is life.

Mbappe has such an insane future if he keeps it up. He could've won his 2nd worldcup and he's only 23 years old, and has already scored more goals than almost anyone in a WC, while almost entirely carrying his team. I'm glad France lost, because they have the potential to be completely dominant for another 10 years, and that's even without mbappe.

Mbappe scored 3 goals + a penalty in a world cup final.

He is an amazing player with no equal at this moment.

1 goal and 3 penalties.

Or 1 goal and 1 penalty, the penalty executed like carbon copy three times. It was almost like kicker and goalie were working on this one execution together.

MBappe scored the most goals in the WC final history (4), yet it wasn't enough.

Benzema could have (should have) been a sub in the final - they even took Giroud out early! But in true French fashion they couldn’t get over their drama.

Still it let Mbappe shine and put on a legendary show

Also, that foul on Di Maria in the penalty box wasn't.

Argentina were the best team by far 80 min.

It just so happened that things went out of the script in the following 3 minutes, and then after we proceeded to watch quite possibly the best extra time played of all time, certainly in a final game.

Best final? Possibly. But only because of the unexpected 2-2 which looked impossible in the preceding 80mins. In fact, there was only 1 team that showed up for most of the first 90mins.

Had the game not gone into extra time, this would just be another lopsided game with a deserved winner. This was not a trade of blows, Rocky style.

That was left for extra time :)

That's kind of silly. A match doesn't have to be trading blows like Rocky for the whole 90 minutes. Stuff happens. If you have a 2-0 lead, you have to protect it for the entire game.

I get tired of things being proclaimed "the best ever" though. "It was really good" is plenty, unless you've watched every other one.

[Hi from Argentina] When it was 2-0, I expected the team to go full defense as usual in other Word Cups. I't boring because you have 10 players defending and only 1 in the other half of the field trying to use an error to make a 3rd goal. It's at the same time very boring and very nerving.

I was surprise they continue attacking, and were very close to the 3rd goal.

Well, congratulations, anyway. They made it exciting.

It's boring but it's better than losing like Brazil did :)

We are talking about the best match ever.

For a game to qualify as the "best ever", there MUST be trading blows. And I don't mean like fistfights. I mean like end to end almost-goal action. And comebacks.

Which is exactly what happened in extra time. Twice. And plenty of chances gone amiss

NO one remembers a game that ended 1-0 with nothing else happening. Its not memorable

Even if its a final.

that's like, just your opinion, man.

Please compare to every other World Cup final now. Even the ones before you were born. List them all here.

OR : we can just agree that it was a great game.

It's all about opinion, isn't it? Even if they compared yesterdays final to every other final in history there are still no objective criteria to judge.

Right. But at least they'd have to stop with the superlatives.

I don't know if Messi is greater than Pelé or Maradona. Or if Muhammed Ali was greater than Joe Louis. They're all great.

actually, it'd be very very easy to measure with the right stat toolsets.

Simply look at XG, progressive passing, even something as basic as chances created, and i bet you will see a marked difference with other finals.

And I mean the numbers will be high, but critically, and -this is important- they will high numbers split between BOTH teams. I think stats will bear that out. Unf I don't have access to opta to get this info without paying.

Usually in Extra time you have both teams playing conservative, OR 1 team chasing the win and the other holding for dear life.

Yesterday both teams were out to hurt each other.

After the first half it was a phenomenal game. I was in a pub in Peckham and despite people not particularly rooting either way the atmosphere was insane.

Also loved that everyone booed the Qatari blokes.

> everyone booed the Qatari blokes.

I always find this hilarious, half of Canary Wharf is owned by Qataris lol

How is it hilarious? I doubt the average English person is a massive fan of Canary Wharf and it’s owners.

It's hilarious because it plays a part in the UK economy and generates tax pounds. So in way or another they are not so disconnected form the people they are booing.

I really don't understand your point or your sense of humor

Yeah no we are rich property owners/developers and what they’re doing to our city. Take your money and fuck off kindly, we’ll keep our pubs.

Canary Wharf is built by the rich to serve the rich, the average Londoner at best thinks of it as kind of a dystopian novelty with big stuff.

The amazing part is that even the second half looked like a complete bore until the 80th minute. I don't think I've ever watched a match turn around not only in the score, but also in the pace and intensity so decisively and so late. I rooted for argentina but I'm so glad Mbappe almost single handedly made the final legendary by bringing France back from the brink.

The second half was better than you think it was and will hold up under rewatching, I suspect.

In the first half, Argentina dominated possession and kept France completely on defense and just pummeled them, a boxer just getting blasted in the corner holding gloves up for dear life, super lopsided.

In the second half, from the very start, France was hungry for blood, it's just that the Argentinian defense was very strong as they had not yet really had to play much in the first half. It seemed boring because we were already thinking we saw this going 3-0, Messi sweeping up the Cup easily in the last game against a sick team stuck at their 75%. But if you are paying more attention, you will see France with the lead on possession, numerous back-and-forth pushes, lots of French pushes only to be stuck inside a “cup” of three Argentine defenders who shut it down... Then they start to get tired, leading to that first penalty (“let me just hug you in the box”), followed by the French sharks sensing the fatigue, blood in the water, a French feeding frenzy. It should hold up well I think

if you are referring to the TV....they actually booed infantino, the president of fifa.

No one booed the qataris. In fact the boos ended once the king was announced.

They love their king and deservedly so

I’m talking about my fellow pub go-ers.

Agreed! This is the most epic championship I’ve ever seen in any sport.

I was watching with a French friend and cheering for them, but I’ve got to say Argentina earned it and it would have been a shame if Messi never got a cup.

Mbappé’s hat trick was also an epic display that the torch is being passed to the next generation. Tonight was just about everything you could ask for in a game.

Gotta give that one to the Patriots beating the Falcons with the (by far) biggest comeback in NFL Super Bowl history, all in the 4th quarter.

It required about 8 minutes of nearly perfect play to keep their chances alive.

Agreed. It was a genuine, high intensity game.

No diving, no risk-averse passes for minutes, no BS. It was a proper world cup final.

The first penalty looked a bit iffy diving wise https://www.tiktok.com/@mishary.19/video/7178520312630267137...

This doesn't give context at all. Dembele was just completely beaten. He then made contact with Di Maria from behind when there was no chance he was playing for ball. Sure the referee didn't have to call penalty but it was fair he did. A more obvious interference could have resulted in a red card.

Helped by the ref being excellent.

> No diving

By what standard was there "No diving"? Do you mean by the standard of "they all dive all of the time, so this wasn't bad relative to that"?

As someone who doesn't watch soccer, saying there was "No diving" beggars belief.

What we call diving is likely not what someone who doesn't watch soccer would recognize as diving. It's pretty common to overdramatize fouls to get the ref to stop the game, and it's pretty accepted (although obviously extra points if you don't). This isn't actually diving but is sometimes colloquially referred to as such even by people who know better. What's actually a foul is diving when no one fouled you, which is what one of the French players did this game inside the penalty box. He got a yellow for it. The ref, besides spotting that in a split-second (impressive), was also very good at keeping the action going and only stopping if he saw an actual foul.

One does wish for less dramatization overall but you have to remember that if you keep playing the ref can rule that you did not wish to take the free kick. This is allowed since it's sometimes more advantageous. The rule is quite literally called advantage, and you don't want to take it unless it makes sense, although the ref usually makes a judgement call after a couple seconds. Still..

Factually untrue regarding no diving. The ref gave a yellow card to France for diving in the penalty box.

> No diving, ...

Did you not see the first penalty??

That was a Neymar class performance worthy of a Fallon d'Floor award.

1994 was my first World Cup and this really felt similar from what I remember. Except the stars put in their penalties