Winning his first world cup could end up being his last. As Lionel Messi leads the Argentina team they take home the 2022 FIFA World Cup trophy. But how did Argentina make it to the finals?

Argentina’s Way To The Finals

As the team didn’t start as strong as they had hoped, eventually they came back showing Argentina was meant to be in the World Cup. A part of group C, Argentina had its first game against Saudia Arabia on November 22, losing the game 1-2. The team only had two more games to earn the points needed to move on from the group stage. Argentina’s next game was against Mexico on November 26. This was a hard game for the team to win, but they came out on top with a final score of 2-0. This win gave them hope of moving to the next stage in the world cup. The next game would be the final decision as to whether they move forward or not, and that was the game against Poland.

In this game, Argentina had to pull through to stay in the World Cup, and on November 30th they did exactly that, with the winning score of 2-0, taking them to round 16!

In the 16th round, Argentina played Australia. As it was another close game. Argentina was able to beat the team 2-1 on December 3rd. By winning the 16th round, it meant Argentina was going to the finals. They had two more games before the final. Their next game was against the Netherlands on December 9th where they tied 2-2, but they made it into the final game with a 3-0 win on December 13 against Croatia.

Down To The Last Two Teams

On December 18th, 2022, Argentina played in the winning game at 10 am Sunday. It was Argentina vs France. This was Lionel Messi’s last ever World Cup, and making it to the final game was a huge success for the already famously beloved football player. In the first half, Argentina was up 2-0, France’s goalie had gotten hurt at the beginning of the half, causing 7 minutes to be added on making the half a full 52 minutes. As everyone thought Argentina was going to win, inthe last 12 minutes of the game, the very know French player Mbappé scored off of a penalty kick. And as time was about to run out, he scored on another penalty tying up the game. The teams had gone into double overtime, Messi Scoring first, making the score 3-2, and then Mbappé scoring again in the last 5 minutes of overtime. As fans in the stadium and at home were sitting on the edges of their seats as the teams they love went into penalty kicks.

The first penalty kick was taken from France. Making the kick into the goal, Mbappé sets up the leading scorer for his team. Messi takes the first kick for Argentina, and he as well made the penalty kick. France went again and made it, and so did Argentina. But on France’s third kick they missed.  They were still in the game but it wasn’t a good sign. Argentina scored their penalty kick once again. France, now under pressure, goes to take their fourth penalty kick, but they miss.

If Argentina makes the next goal, then it’s game over, they go home with the winning title of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. As the fans in the crowd are cheering, the ball goes into the back of the net. Argentina wins the World cup, and Messi gets the perfect ending for a dream footballer. Winning his very first FIFA World Cup, Messi signs off.