Argentina will face France at Lusail Iconic Stadium at 19:00 UTC in the final of Qatar world cup 2022.
Argentina qualified for final after defeating Croatia for 3-0 while France defeated African team Morocco for 2-0 to reach successive second final.
Both the teams are competing for the third star on the jersey.Argentina’s captain Messi will be their hope. Messi will go out today to complete his final World Cup match by winning the trophy.
On the other hand, France’s hope lies in young player Mbappe. After Brazil and Italy, France will also be aiming to win their second consecutive title.
TEAM NEWS
Argentina
#Qatar2022 ¡Última parada de la #Scaloneta 🚍!
🗓 Final
⚽️ @Argentina 🇦🇷 – #Francia 🇫🇷
🕗 12.00
🏟️ Lusail
👨⚖️ Szymon Marciniak (Polonia)
📝 https://t.co/4N6hEm2Zv0 pic.twitter.com/UGCM60NbEJ
— Selección Argentina 🇦🇷 (@Argentina) December 18, 2022
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni has a full complement of players to choose from, with Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel available again after serving their suspensions.
Di Maria, who did not play in the first eleven in the last two games, is likely to play in the first eleven Or Scaloni will play Argentina with 5 defenders.
France
⏳ Plus que quelques heures à patienter avant la 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙚 𝙙𝙚 𝙡𝙖 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙥𝙚 𝙙𝙪 𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙚… 🏆🔥
🇦🇷-🇫🇷 #ARGFRA | #FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/TxUNV5cvnA
— Equipe de France ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) December 18, 2022
France’s Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot, who missed the Morocco match due to a virus, are doubtful but could feature.
Kylian Benzema didn’t return to squad for final against Argentina.It is doubtful that current number 9 Giroud will play against France.
TALKING POINTS
– Argentina are competing in their sixth World Cup final, with only Germany (8) participating in more. They’re looking to win the trophy for a third time along with 1978 and 1986, but defeat would see them with the joint-most World Cup final losses in history (4, level with Germany
– France have reached the World Cup final for a fourth time, all since 1998 (1998, 2006, 2018, 2022). This is twice as many as any other nation in this period. Les Bleus, the reigning champions, are looking to become only the third nation to win back-to-back World Cups, after Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962).
– This will be the fourth World Cup meeting between Argentina and France. La Albiceleste won two of the previous three, but lost the only such encounter in the knockout stage, a 3-4 defeat in 2018’s round of 16. Overall, this will be the 13th meeting between Argentina and France in all competitions, with Les Bleus winning just three of the previous 12 (D3 L6), although the most recent was their 4-3 win at the 2018 World Cup.
– France are unbeaten in their last 10 World Cup matches against South American nations (W6 D4). Indeed, their last such defeat came against Argentina, doing down 2-1 in the 1978 first group stage.
– This will be the 11th World Cup final competed between a South American and European nation; South American sides lifted the trophy on seven of those previous 10 occasions. However, Argentina are responsible for two of the three such defeats for South American teams (against Germany in 1990 and 2014), while France are responsible for the other win (3-0 v Brazil in 1998).
H2H
Argentina: 6 Wins
France: 3 Wins
Draws: 3
RECENT FORM
Argentina: WWWWW
France: WLWWW
PREDICTED LINEUPS
Argentina: E Martinez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Acuna; De Paul, Fernandez, Mac Allister; Di Maria, Messi, Alvarez.
France: Lloris; Kounde, Varane, Upamecano, Hernandez; Griezmann, Tchouameni, Rabiot; Dembele, Giroud, Mbappe.
Predicted score: Argentina 2-0 France.
