Though Argentina stumbled at the first World Cup hurdle before getting their act together to storm into another final, led by their captain Lionel Messi who has moved to the top of the tournament’s scoring charts. Eight years ago, Messi dragged Argentina to the World Cup final only to lose to Germany but this time he has a supporting group of teammates and coach, Lionel Scaloni who has guided them to the showpiece match in Qatar.

Their recent match against Croatia, a team who had not won a knockout game in normal time since 1998, was set to test Argentina but they passed with flying colors Messi two of the goals that helped secure Argentina to the finals. But once again it was Messi running things, setting Alvarez through on goal with the crucial touch before his own run from the halfway line and dribble past defender Josko Gvardiol set up his young strike partner for the easy finish. 

It’s been a remarkable World Cup campaign so far for Argentina, who have scored 12 goals in their six matches. They came so close back in 2014, as they lost out to Germany in the final by a late winner from Mario Gotze, ultimately making Messi’s heroics throughout the tournament in vain. With Argentina fresh off winning the Copa America, perhaps La Albiceleste are genuine contenders for the crown in what is Lionel Messi’s final World Cup. 

Argentina comes into the World Cup final with a 4-1-1 record. Their lone loss was in their first group-stage match where they fell to Saudi Arabia. In their remaining group stage matches they beat Mexico and Poland; not allowing a single goal, and topped Group C in the process. Their round of 16 match was mighty underdogs Australia both Messi and Julian Alvarez scored securing their win. The quarter-final match against the Netherlands might just be the moment that announced to the world what Argentina was capable of. Argentina was able to thwart a relatively unscathed Dutch team, going up on them 2-0 by the 73rd minute. The Dutch did pull off a special comeback to make the game 2-2, but in penalties 4-3 the Argentines showed their quality. Their semi-final against staunch Croatia proved just how good this Argentina team is. Croatia had not given up more than one goal in any 2022 World Cup match and was a collective unit that found ways to advance. Argentina dissected them twice in six minutes to take a 2-0 lead in the first half. A moment of brilliance from Messi and a finish by Alvarez made it 3-0 in the second half sending the Argentines to the World Cup final.

With the success they have had It’s looking bright for the Argentina team.