Lionel Messi starred for Argentina as Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez and Manchester City's Julian Alvarez won the World Cup on penalties against France.
It looked like Messi and his teammates were going to have an easy afternoon when they went 2-0 up before the interval. However, a mad 90 seconds with 10 minutes of normal time remaining put the game in the balance as Kylian Mbappe scored a brilliant brace to take the game to extra time.
Messi thought he had won it in the 108th minute but Mbappe scored again from the penalty spot to take the match to a shootout. But France's luck ran out and it was Argentina who take home the trophy.
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Argentina controlled the early stages of the contest in Lusail with the French looking tired. On 23 minutes, they were the ones to make the breakthrough as former United man Angel Di Maria was clipped by Ousmane Dembele in the area.
Messi stepped up and converted the spot kick comfortably. Lionel Scaloni's side were in the ascendency and doubled their lead with 10 minutes of normal time in the first half remaining.
A flowing counter-attack saw Argentina break through the French backline allowing Brighton's Alexis Mac Allister to square for Di Maria to lift the ball beyond Hugo Lloris. Scaloni's men remained the better side for much of the second half until the game turned on its head with just over 10 minutes remaining.
Nicolas Otamendi was caught out by a run from Randal Kolo Muani and he brought the Bundesliga man down for the second penalty of the contest. Kylian Mbappe stepped up and fired the ball past Emi Martinez despite the Aston Villa goalkeeper getting gloves on the ball.
Just 90 seconds later we were destined for extra time as Mbappe unleashed a fearsome volley that was drilled into the bottom corner. Into the next 30 minutes and France were now the team on the up.
But, as we'd come to expect from this final, drama was to follow. Substitute Lautaro Martinez went the closest in extra time but his strike went agonisingly wide.
His miss was redeemed with 10 minutes of extra time remaining as his shot was parried by Lloris into the path of Messi who bundled the ball into the net despite Jules Kounde's best efforts to keep it out.
However, the game would turn once more as Mbappe's strike hit the arm of Gonzalo Montiel and a penalty was given. The French star sent Martinez the wrong way and secured his hat-trick becoming only the second player to accomplish that feat in a World Cup final.
With penalties needed to decide the destination of the World Cup, it was Martinez's mind games that were the deciding factor as Kingsley Coman and Aurelien Tchouameni missed their spot kicks. Montiel scored the crucial winner as the South Americans won 4-2 in the shootout.
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