It was a hard-fought battle by the Frenchmen, but ultimately Lionel Messi's Argentina will take the trophy home after beating the 2018 champions in penalties in the final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in the Lusail Stadium in Qatar on Sunday, December 18. France came back from a 2-0 deficit to take the match into extra time. The Kylian Mbappe completed his hat-trick, only the second in the 92-year history of the tournament, to neutralise Messi's second of the match.
Despite their well-fought comeback, France looked like the shell of a side that win 4-2 in the final of the 2018 World Cup. Here, we take a look at five reasons that prevented them from winning the coveted trophy.
Tactical stubbornness hurt France
Argentina's head coach Lionel Scaloni completely outwit France's Didier Deschamps. He went with a similar setup to the semifinal against Croatia, but added the surprise element of Angel Di Maria, whose pace and experience left the French players dumbstruck.
France were unable to cope with the overload in their midfield as Argentina constantly fought through their press. In the end, it was the defensive mistakes of the Argentines that helped France come back in the game, showing how Deschamps was outwitted by his much younger counterpart.
Lack of midfielder was a wrong call
Argentina went with a 4-4-2 diamond formation that was no match for France's midfield. This meant that three players of the winners of the trophy pressed on the two midfielders of France, completely neutralising their forward attacks. Argentina went on to have 30 shots in the whole match and always kept the pressure on their opponents.
Penalty takers fell short
Didier Deschamps needed to make changes in order to bring his team back into the game. And while they did help mount a comeback of the ages, it eventually came back to bite them as they fell short of people to take the most important kicks of the match.
Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud, Adrien Rabiot and Ousmane Dembele were all players with experience at this stage, and all four of them were hauled off the pitch searching for the win. While one of the substitutes in Kingsley Coman's penalty was saved, young Aurelien Tchouameni, who was pushed up the pecking order, went on to fire his shot wide.
Could not stop Messi's onslaughts
Whenever an opposing team plays against Argentina, they use at least two players to mark the talismanic Lionel Messi. But the French players were unable to stop the PSG players and gave him many opportunities to play. First they could not save his penalty that gave Argentina the lead, and then his key pass to teammate Alexis Mac Allister led to their second goal. He also scored in extra time to take his side to the brink of the trophy.
Illness also hit France
Players are trained to play through illness, if not injury. But the France side that took the field of Sunday looked depleted and tired from kick-off. Ahead of the match, on Friday the French Football Federation confirmed that defensive pair Raphael Varane and Ibrahima Konate missed training through illness, after Deschamps had said on Thursday that Kingsley Coman felt unwell as well.
This came after Adrien Rabiot and Dayot Upamecano missed their 2-0 semifinal win over Morocco. Of these players, Raphael Varane, Adrien Rabiot and Dayot Upamecano started for France.
