For two hours and a bit, the 2022 final told two completely different stories, and then a third. It is the match people reach for when they argue about the greatest ever played, and for once the hyperbole is hard to dispute.
The match
Argentina were imperious for an hour. Lionel Messi rolled in a first-half penalty, Ángel Di María finished a flowing move for the second, and France had not managed a shot on target. It looked done. Then, inside two minutes near the end, Kylian Mbappé converted a penalty and volleyed a stunning equaliser, and a one-sided final became a brawl.
Extra time matched it blow for blow. Messi bundled in what looked like the winner; Mbappé answered with another penalty to complete his hat-trick, the first in a World Cup final since 1966. It finished 3-3, and went to the place these two giants had spent the night trying to avoid.
The shootout
Penalties belonged to Argentina, and to their goalkeeper. Emiliano Martínez saved from Kingsley Coman, Aurélien Tchouaméni dragged his wide, and Gonzalo Montiel slotted the winner into the corner. Argentina were world champions, 4-2.
Why it mattered
This was the ending Messi's career had been missing, the one trophy that had eluded the player most often called the greatest of all time, won in his fifth and final World Cup. Mbappé scored a hat-trick in a losing final and still finished as the tournament's top scorer, a passing of nothing, since he was only getting started. The match has its own gravity now: a final that had a procession, a collapse, a comeback, and a shootout, and gave the sport's defining figure the one honour left to win.