C’est magnifique!
France win an incredible tie against Argentina with their 19-year-old prodigy outplaying even the great Messi
● For Lionel Messi this World Cup is over. Arguably the greatest player of this and any generation traipsed off the pitch at the end of this astonishing game, his head down, his shoulders slumped, his eyes glazed, knowing that his chances of ever adding a World Cup winners’ medal to his groaning trophy cabinet are now over.
But football does not pause long. If the king is dead, long live the new king. At 19, most of us were sleeping off a hangover after spending too much of our student loan in the union bar. At 19 Kylian Mbappe has just produced the most astonishing individual performance of this tournament.
The France No 10 was everything the Argentina No 10 wasn’t, exuding the quality that used to be Messi’s trademark: he was the man who made the difference.
Magnificently bonkers
Anyone who feared that, following the spirited delights of the group stage, Russia 2018 would be submerged in cagey caution should have been watching this game. It was magnificently bonkers, a heavyweight slugfest of unhinged glory, in which superb goals were swapped with a cavalier flourish, that fizzed with energy and commitment until the last second of added time. Exactly 20 years on from Argentina against England, it was like St Etienne all over again in the Kazan Arena.
And for the French supporters, this was the performance they had long craved. This was the France that, Didier Deschamps’ small army of critics insist, was there all along, stifled by his unimaginative tactics. The France of youth and energy and adventure. The France with an average five years younger than their opponents. This was the France of Kylian Mbappe.
The PSG striker gave his first warning that this was the game he would make his own as early as 10 minutes in. A lovely free-kick from Paul Pogba set him free, running at Argentina’s arthritic defence, who resorted to type, scything him down in a sandwich between Javier Mascherano and Nicolas Tagliafico. But Argentina did not — or perhaps could not — heed the warning. Not long after, he then galloped from his own half into the area, where he was promptly taken down by Marcos Rojo. Antoine Griezmann’s penalty was cool, calm and collected.
Argentina were not cowed. Sure the tactics dreamed up by Messi and Mascherano were not controlling the game as they would wish. But they still had talent lurking.
Angel Di Maria, who had given a fine impression of the invisible man for the first half hour, suddenly smashed a 30m strike past Hugo Lloris for the equaliser.
The South Americans even took the lead when Messi finally found some space in the French box and saw his tame shot spin off the heel of Gabriel Mercado into the net.
But much as the Kazan Arena resembled the Bombanero, with the stands bouncing the blue and white thrum and Diego Maradona flying in the executive boxes, France always looked likely to seize control.
With N’golo Kante tracking Messi everywhere and Pogba growing more and more influential alongside him, they found an equaliser with Benjamin Pavard’s piledriver.
But this was the game that announced to the world a new hero. First Mbappe danced through the leaden-footed Argentine defence to give France the lead, then he finished off the move of the tournament, which began with Lloris’s short pass and ended with a sublime shot into the corner.
When he was substituted with five minutes to go, even the thousands wearing vertical striped shirts were obliged to acknowledge the new world order. — © The Daily Telegraph, London