Qatar 2022 World Cup Final Argentina vs France
After nearly a month of fierce competition, the final showdown of the 2022 Qatar World Cup will be staged on December 18 at 23:00 Beijing time, against the veteran powerhouse Pampas Eagles Argentina and Gallic Rooster France. This is the battle for the king to reach the top, and whoever can win the Forbidden Purple will be revealed in a day!
The promotion of both teams
Argentina: Group stage 1 1-2 Saudi Arabia, second match 2-0 Mexico, third game 2-0 Poland, quarterfinals 2-1 Australia, quarter-finals 2-2 Netherlands, semi-finals 3-0 Croatia
France: Group stage first game 4-1 Australia, second game 2-1 Denmark, third game 0-1 Tunisia, quarter-final 3-1 Poland, quarter-final 2-1 England, semi-final 2-0 Morocco
Interestingly, both teams played Australia and Poland in the process of promotion, Argentina played both teams and won two games and scored 4 goals and conceded 1 goal, and France played both teams with 2 wins and 7 goals and conceded 2 goals
Record of the historical head-to-head between the two teams
The two teams have met a total of 12 times in history, with Argentina having the upper hand with 6 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats. The most recent defeat was Argentina's 4-3 defeat to France in the quarterfinals of the last World Cup, where Messi contributed two assists and Kylian Mbappe scored two goals!
Statistics on the 2018 World Cup
In addition, there is no other record of the two sides in the past ten years!
Pre-match information
1. Injury and illness status
The French captain has a long list of injuries
France suffered serious injuries ahead of the final. Upamecano, Cornet, Koeman, and Varane all contracted the virus. Some media reported that it was a serious Middle East respiratory syndrome, and the French team officially refuted rumors that it was a cold caused by the stadium's air conditioning system! In addition, the main back Chuameni suffered a strained hip and thigh muscles, the current situation is unknown, and Te'o and Hernandez are also injured.
If these injuries do not return in time for the final, then the French midfield is equivalent to losing half of the main team!
And the Argentine side is fully equipped and has not suffered from injuries!
With 34 hours to go before the World Cup final, you can keep an eye on the injuries of both teams!
2. Referee team information
Polish referee Simon Macciñak will officiate the 2022 World Cup final between France and Argentina. Simon Macinjak (born 7 January 1981) is a 41-year-old referee who started his career in the Polish top league in 2009 and became a FIFA international referee in 2013.
Final referee Simon. Machiniac
In this World Cup, Machiniac made a total of 2 appearances, which happened to blow Argentina and France respectively. In the group stage, Macignak refereered France's 2-1 win over Denmark. In the round of 16, Machiñac officiated Argentina's 2-1 win over Australia.
In both games, Macignak showed a total of 5 yellow cards, did not show a red card and did not award a penalty.
In terms of assistant referees and fourth officials, FIFA referee chairman Corina chose Pavel Sokolniski and Thomas Listkiewicz as assistant referees. The fourth official was American Ismar Erfat, and the video assistant was Poland's Tomáš Koviatkowski.
France and Argentina have beaten Poland in this cup, which is fair to some extent.
The reason why the information of the referee team is listed here is that you can combine it with the information on the Internet. And for the final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, this could become an important X-factor.
3. Other off-site information
The battle for the top scorer of the 2022 Qatar World Cup
Messi signed with the Saudi Tourism Authority as Saudi Tourism Ambassador and Ambassador for the 2030 World Cup bid before the start of the World Cup, with a contract value of up to 100 million euros. This is exactly what other superstars have previously rejected because of human rights concerns in Arab countries. So this adds a lot of points to Messi in the Middle East.
Paris Saint-Germain's controlling party is the Qatar National Investment Fund, and last year in order to retain Mbappe, the Qatari royal family even used diplomacy to finally prompt Macron to come forward to keep Mbappe! The five major leagues will continue after the World Cup, and Paris Saint-Germain will still have to keep Mbappe if they want to make a difference in the Champions League.
Both Messi and Kylian Mbappe have both scored five goals in this World Cup and are almost the strongest contenders for the top scorer in the World Cup. So both inside and outside the field are secretly fighting!
Technical data statistics of the two teams to date
The main technical statistics of the two teams
In fact, for the teams that have reached the finals, statistics are no longer so important. Because it has been proven that they can adapt to different styles and intensities of competition to reach the final. But we can still look at the characteristics of the two teams through technical statistics.
Argentina core Messi
Let's start with Argentina. They still basically have to control the ball, and in this tournament they are basically the ball in all other games except Croatia in the semi-finals. Their attacks basically do not go in the air, they all go on the ground, so their long passes and crosses are less than those of France. The core of the attack is in Messi, the ball basically has to pass through his feet, and the final finishing shot is also mainly at the feet of Messi, Messi has shot 27 times in this cup, ranking first among all participating players! So the ultimate task of playing Argentina is to defend Messi, compress his living space and cut off the passing route. The chances that Messi created for his other teammates were also ground balls, and surprise straight balls in small spaces were the main attacking method, so you see Argentina win 32 teams with 19 offsides!
Argentina's defense is second only to Morocco among all 32 teams, with only 8 shots on target in 6 games! Of course, this also has to do with Argentina's oppressive style of possession, and it is difficult for the opponent to overwhelm the Argentine half. In the semi-finals, Argentina gave up possession (39% possession) and the opponent had more shots on goal (Croatia's 12 shots on goal were nearly three times the average number of shots in Argentina's previous five matches). Argentina didn't really face a very attacking team along the way, only the Netherlands were slightly stronger, and they conceded two goals in that game.
France's arrow and future core Mbappe
Let's talk about France. France play diverse football, as can be seen in their configuration up front, with Olivier Giroud as a high school striker, Mbappe as a breakout flashpoint and Griezmann at the heart of the organisation. Therefore, the French team's attack can be fast or slow, high in the air or on the ground, and can penetrate in the middle and cross on the wing. So we can see France have more long passes, crosses and scramble than Argentina. Olivier Giroud has scored 4 goals, Mbappe has scored 5 goals, Griezmann has contributed 3 assists and created 7 great chances, which fully shows that Trident has its own irreplaceable role!
Defensively, France's role at the back is crucial. In fact, the French team has always attached importance to the role of the back in the whole system. The current manager, Deschamps, was France's main backhorse when France won the World Cup for the first time in 1998. Vieira, Petit, Makelele, Kante, Pogba... France has the highest number of interceptions of all teams in this World Cup, and the back position is indispensable.
And on the back line, De Shang doesn't know if he will change in the final? In fact, defending Argentina does not need a tall defender, but a flexible and fast defender, so whether the guard line with an average height of 185 cm can prevent the Argentine attack trident with an average height of 173 cm is worth paying attention to! Argentina have scored 4 penalties so far in this World Cup, and 3 of them are the team's first goals, which needs to be paid great attention to the French backline!
Ultimate score prediction
Based on the performance of the two teams in this World Cup, they should not be able to prevent each other, so this World Cup final is unlikely to have a score of 0:0, and the audience can expect a wonderful performance. I personally like Argentina vs France 1:1 or 1:2. France will become the first reigning World Cup champion in 60 years, and Kylian Mbappe crowned top scorer! And Messi may win the World Cup MVP title again as a runner-up after 2010!
Tips
1. Argentina will appear in the World Cup finals for the sixth time, with only Germany and Brazil reaching the final more times (8 and 7). They hope to win the title for the third time after 1978 and 1986, but if they lose, they will be the team with the most defeats in World Cup final history (4 times, equal to Germany).
France reached the World Cup final for the fourth time, and all four were after 1998 (1998, 2006, 2018 and 2022). Over the same period, that's at least twice as much as other teams. The Gallic Roosters want to be the third team to defend their World Cup title, the first two being Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962).
3. France are unbeaten in the last 10 World Cup matches against South American teams (6 wins, 4 draws). In fact, their most recent defeat to South American teams was a 2-1 defeat to Argentina in the first phase of the group stage in 1978.
4. This is the 11th time that a South American team has met a European team in a World Cup final; The previous 10 South American teams have won 7 times. However, two of the three defeats of the South American team came from Argentina (against Germany in 1990 and 2014), while France won one for European teams (3-0 Brazil in 1998).
5. In the group stage, Argentina lost 1-2 to Saudi Arabia and France lost 1-0 to Tunisia, which will be the second time in the history of the World Cup that two teams that have lost a game meet in the final, the first time was in 1978 - when Argentina and the Netherlands both lost a game in the first stage of the group stage, and Argentina beat the Netherlands 3-1 in the final.
6. Since 2018, France has won all 7 World Cup knockout matches. In the history of the World Cup, only Brazil has won a longer streak in the knockout stages between 1958 and 1970 (9) (the knockout stage does not include the first, second and final group stages, but includes the group play-offs).
7. Argentina only averaged 5.7 shots per game in this World Cup, less than any other team. Their previous six games have not allowed their opponents to score more than 0.6 expected goals.
8. France is the team with the highest expected goal value (xG) for non-penalties in the 2022 World Cup (11.9), while Argentina only gives opponents an average of 0.40 non-penalty expected goals per game, the lowest of all teams in this World Cup.
9. Argentina's Lionel Messi will become the player with the most appearances in World Cup history in this match (26). He is also expected to become the first player to score in a single World Cup group stage, round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.
10. Antoine Gritzmann and Kylian Mbappe both scored for France in the 2018 World Cup final (4-2 win over Croatia). Only four players have previously scored in two World Cup finals: Vava (1958 and 1962), Pele (1958 and 1970), Paul Brettner (1974 and 1982) and Zinedine Zidane (1998 and 2006). At 23 years and 363 days on the day of the final, Mbappe is expected to become the youngest player to score in multiple World Cup finals.
11. France's Antoine Griezmann is the player with the most chances created (21) and the highest expected assist value (3.5) at the 2022 World Cup. Since Opta collected data (since 1966), only one French player has created more chances in a single World Cup than Griezmann (21) – Alaine Gireser created 24 chances in both 1982 and 1986.
The 12.44-year-old Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni is the youngest manager to lead a World Cup final since Rudy Worrall (42) in 2002, and he is also expected to become the youngest manager to lead a World Cup victory since compatriot Luis Menotti (39) in 1978.
13. France's Didier Deschamps is expected to become the second coach to lead the same national team to two World Cup titles, the first being Italian coach Vittorio Pozzo in 1934 and 1938. Deschamps managed 18 World Cup matches as head coach, winning 14 (2 draws, 2 defeats); Only Helmut Schöne (16) has won more World Cups, while his 78% win rate is also the highest among managers who have managed more than 10 World Cup matches.
14. In the last two World Cups , the two players who participated the most chances after dribbling (at least 5 meters) were Argentina's Lionel Messi (27) and France's Killian Mbappe (22). Messi completed 17 shots and created 10 chances after dribbling, while Mbappe completed 8 shots and created 14 chances after dribbling.