Argentina will tackle defending champions France within the ultimate of the continuing FIFA World Cup on the Lusail Stadium on Sunday. Argentina eye a 3rd World Cup triumph, and their first in 36 years. La Albiceleste had lifted the title again in 1978 and 1986, with the late nice Diego Maradona taking part in a serious position in each triumphs. Argentina additionally reached the finals in 1990 and 2014, however misplaced on each events to Germany. Sunday’s ultimate shall be Argentina’s sixth, however the journey hasn’t been the simplest one for the Lionel Messi-led facet.
This is Argentina’s street to the FIFA World Cup ultimate:
Group Stage
Argentina have been positioned in Group C, alongside Saudi Arabia, Poland and Mexico.
Their opening match in opposition to Saudi Arabia led to a 1-2 defeat, regardless of Messi giving the South American champions an early lead.
Of their second match, Messi was heading in the right direction as soon as once more as Argentina defeated Mexico 2-0.
Within the third and ultimate group sport in opposition to Poland, Julian Alvarez and Alexis Mac Allister scored at hand Argentina a 2-0 success, in addition to the highest spot.
Spherical of 16 (Argentina vs Australia)
Argentina got here into the knockouts with a number of optimism. Messi took the centre stage as soon as once more, as he opened the scoring in opposition to the Socceroos.
Alvarez then put Argentina 2-0 forward, earlier than Australia virtually staged a comeback.
Australia, after pulling one again because of Enzo Fernandez’s personal purpose, virtually equalised within the dying moments of the match, however Emiliano Martinez had different concepts as he made essential save to take Argentina into the subsequent spherical.
Quarter-Last (Argentina vs Netherlands)
Messi placed on one more masterclass, teeing up Nahuel Molina for the opening purpose, earlier than scoring from the spot to present Argentina a 2-0 lead.
Nevertheless, the Netherlands threw the kitchen sink at Argentina within the final quarter-hour, plus stoppage time, to take the sport to penalties.
Wout Weghorst, who got here as a second-half substitute, scored each the targets for the Dutch.
Spanish referee, Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz added further flavour to the crunch tie as he dished out 18 bookings, together with a pink card to the Dutch right-back Denzel Dumfries.
Argentina finally received the match 4-3 on penalties.
Semi-Last (Argentina vs Croatia)
Argentina ended Croatia’s hopes of reaching the ultimate for the second time in as many editions.
Whereas the match completed 3-0, it took Argentina a while to interrupt Croatia down.
Croatia did properly initially to regulate the tempo of the sport, with Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic dictating phrases within the midfield.
Nevertheless, Argentina have been awarded a penalty after Alvarez was taken down contained in the field by Croatia’s goalkeeper, Dominik Livakovic.
Messi stepped as much as take the spot-kick and fired his effort previous Livakovic, giving Argentina a 1-0 lead.
Alvarez then scored twice to seal a complete win, in addition to a spot within the ultimate.
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