LIONEL MESSI, 35 KARIM BENZEMA, 34

Lionel Messi

Striker, Argentina

Club: Paris Saint Germain (Fra)

B

erlin. Cape Town. Rio de Janeiro. Kazan. Cities where Lionel Messi’s World Cup campaigns have ended. In disappointment. Images of him shuffling past the podium looking distraught after winning the Golden Ball in 2014 have been burned in our minds and spurred debates of whether Messi would ever emulate Diego Maradona and end Argentina’s wait for a World Cup, one that has kept getting longer since 1986. What’s different this time? A lot. Argentina go to Doha on the back of a 35-game unbeaten run, one that 10

includes two wins against Brazil and a cruise through the World Cup qualifiers. In that time, and by beating Brazil at Rio’s Maracana in the Copa America final, they have also ended a 28-year wait for a trophy.

“I don’t know whether we are big favourites or not, but I believe Argentina is always a favourite for its history, what it means and even more now for how we got here,” Messi has said. “Whenever we talk about candidates, we always talk about the same teams,” Messi told South American Federation Conmebol. “If I have to put some above others I think Brazil, France and England are a little bit above the rest. But the World Cup is so difficult and so complicated that anything can happen.”

Not surprisingly, Messi’s form has been crucial to Argentina’s performance. The seven-time Ballon d’or winner scored seven goals in the qualifiers, sharing the top spot for Argentina with striker Lautaro Martinez. Since Lionel Scaloni took charge after a disastrous 2018 finals, Messi has scored 25 goals. Five of them came in one game against Estonia last June. Messi is Argentina’s top scorer with 90 goals in 165 games.

Rodrigo de Paul and Leandro Parades freeing Messi to move further up the pitch is one reason for that. A strong defensive core where goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and central defender Cristian Romero are important cogs that helped keep 10 clean sheets in the qualifiers is another. The team looks solid at the back,and with Messi in the mood – he has 12 goals and 14 assists in 18 games for PSG this term – spectacular in front.

“He gave us confidence, he was bringing in new people, he always knew what he wanted and we grew. From the Copa America 2019, we took a leap,” Messi has said of Scaloni.

So will it all come together in what Messi, 35, has said will be his last World Cup?

Striker, France

Club: Real Madrid (Spain) or five-and-a-half years, Karim Benzema was exiled from the national team for his role in a sex-tape/blackmail scandal involving a France team mate. In that time, Didier Deschamps forged a team capable of being world champions, one that rode on an unstoppable force called Kylian Mbappe to the title in Russia.

“There was a difficult period when I wasn’t in the French team but I never gave up,” Benzema said while receiving his first Ballon d’or in Paris last month at 34 years of age (he turns 35 one day after the World Cup final on December 18).

Giving up is something Benzema hasn’t done since he began kicking a ball against a wall in a Lyon suburb. He has been brilliant at Real Madrid -- first doing the running for Cristiano Ronaldo, and then the bulk of the scoring after

Ronaldo left in 2018. It was repeated acts of pulling Real Madrid back from the brink that fetched Benzema the Ballon d’or and made his club the champions of Europe last season.

His return to the national team though hasn’t been without pangs. Kylian Mbappe has said he prefers playing with Oiivier Giroud, who is two goals away from Thierry Henry’s national record of 51, as the focal point of the attack because his hold-up play gives Mbappe more freedom.

“A plus for us? Of course he is. When you are the second-best striker in the French team if you are not a plus you will never be a plus,” Mbappe has said of Giroud.

Benzema and Mbappe didn’t hit the high notes in the 2020 Euro (played in 2021). Mbappe didn’t score and though Benzema got four, France were eliminated by Switzerland in the Round of 16 at Euro 2020 (played in 2021). France have also struggled this season to avoid relegation from the Nations League, a competition they won in 2021.

“It’s perfectly normal for a team to go on slightly less successful runs, but France remain a really competitive force and are among the top teams in Europe and the world,” head coach Didier Deschamps, who has been in charge for 10 years, has said. “We’re the defending world champions. When you’re at the very top, it’s difficult to do any better.”

No team since Brazil in 1962 have won back-to-back World Cups. If France are to emulate that, they will have to sort of issues in defence and midfield, hope Benzema can fire, and that he and Mbappe can find a way to bring the best out of each other.

F