SACRE BLUESLUE
France finish off Argentina in 4-3 thriller as World Cup glory games continue
Lionel Messi said goodbye to the World Cup as he was eclipsed on football’s biggest stage by a teenager.
Messi couldn’t inspire his country to victory. Instead, that honour went to France’s 19-yearold Kylian Mbappe, who tore Argentina apart in one of the great World Cup encounters.
The youngster, who moved for a staggering £142 million last summer from Monaco to Paris St-germain, scored twice and was brought down for a penalty as he announced himself as a genuine world star.
He was the stand-out performer as France scored three goals in 11 second-half minutes after their opponents had threatened an unlikely win.
To think, Mbappe wasn’t even born when the French won the World Cup in 1998. But while he and his team-mates can prepare for a quarter-final in Nizhny Novgorod on Friday, Messi will be on his holidays.
The Barcelona superstar will be 35 by the time of the next World Cup in 2022 and after four attempts, his efforts to match Diego Maradona as a World Cup winner have come up short.
It was simply asking too much to do it with this current Argentina squad, who sweated just to make it to the finals and then to get out of the group.
And here they couldn’t contain a French team that had too much pace and energy for them.
Belaguered coach Jorge Sampaoli rolled the dice once again and went with a starting line-up without a recognised striker.
Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain were both left on the bench as Messi was pushed into the most advanced forward role.
After making six changes for the final group game with Denmark, all the big hitters were back in the French team.
One, Antoine Griezmann, almost had them in front inside 10 minutes but his curling freekick came back off the crossbar.
Yet minutes later, he stroked home the opening goal from the penalty spot.
It came after a loose touch by Ever Banega in midfield, with the ball seized upon by Mbappe, who charged at the Argentine defence.
Marcos Rojo couldn’t live with his pace and simply pushed him to the floor as Mbappe advanced for a blatant penalty.
Mbappe’s blistering speed nearly won him a second penalty, but Nicolas Tagliafico’s challenge was deemed just outside the area.
There was further danger for Argentina when Griezmann danced past Rojo inside the area, but his low ball across was cut out by Franco Armani.
The South Americans had lacked a focal point up front with Messi dropping deeper to get on the ball. But a moment of sheer brilliance had them level by half-time.
Angel Di Maria found himself in space 30 yards out, and hit an unstoppable left-foot strike beyond Hugo Lloris in the French net.
Within three minutes of the restart, the men in the blue-andwhite stripes were ahead.
Banega’s free-kick was headed clear only as far as Messi, who made room for a shot.
It wouldn’t have troubled Lloris, but for an almost inadvertent touch from Argentine right-back Gabriel Mercado, which sent the ball in the opposite direction.
Yet that was matched by the right-back at the other end, although there was nothing lucky about Benjamin Pavard’s equalising goal for France.
As he ran on to a cross from left-back Lucas Hernandez, he hit a sweet strike which flew past Armani high into the net.
The momentum was back with the French and a quickfire double from Mbappe put them into the last eight.
First, his sharp movement in the box found space and he drilled a shot through Armani.
Then he supplied the gloss to a fine French attack as he swept home Olivier Giroud’s pass.
In injury time, Messi’s cross was headed home by sub Aguero – too late to eclipse Mbappe’s glory.