Argentina vs France: Who will win the World Cup final?

The final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup pits Messi's Argentina against Mbappe's France. But who will come out on top? JJ Bull looks at how the tactical battle might unfold, and how it might take more than these two PSG superstars to decide the game.

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#WorldCup #France #Argentina

[kevineames]

My head says France, but my heart says Argentina. Vamos!

[fpsoccer]

This is probably the game hardest to predict. Like, even though Japan beat Germany and Spain, if you asked people before the game, they would have an answer. "Yeah definitely Spain/Germany" even though they were wrong. But with this game, I don't think anyone can call anything. It's going to be an exciting game.

[YungG]

Argentina is also not predictable because they’ve used different formations and tactics throughout the whole World Cup depending on the opponent

[crediblesalamander]

I'm not rooting for France, but it's funny how many people are calling them lucky to be in the final. That's 3 finals in the last 4 major tournaments, you don't do that with luck. They're pretty much the Real Madrid of international football. They almost never look super impressive, or as impressive as they theoretically should be. But you can't deny the results.

[Tunde....Ballack]

The issue with France is that they have so many ways they can score, which is not the case for Argentina. They can decide to let the opponent have the ball and attack them and try to play on the counter with Mbappe and Dembele, the can thread a pass through Griezmann, they can go route 1 + target man with Giroud bringing Greizmann and Mbappe into play with his world class link-up. They can put crosses in as Greizmann has been doing all tournament, he has most crosses made, about 20+ and have Giroud go for it. They can score with a set piece with big and tall players. Quite frankly they are a proper tournament team. Having a Plan A, B, C to Z, and it's quite scary really.

[rafidog]

One big factor left out is the propention of the french team to concede Penalties (or do dodgy defensive plays in the box), and Messi's ability to get them.

[Tunde....Ballack]

Now following from my other comment on France's strengths, I think Scaloni has to be proactive to stop them, and I think he will be, he has shown the willingness to change and adapt his tactics and strategy based on the opponent as he did in the Netherlands and the Croatia game, playing different from Games 1 - 4, making it 3 different systems. 4 if you include switching the more wide Papu Gomez for MacAllister.

But here's my suggestion and what I think he might do. France's most dangerous areas are still the wings, and playing a 4 - 4 - 2 to me has a lot of deficiencies. If he goes with the usual lopsided 4 - 4 - 2, and brings Di Maria back. Then you have Di Maria providing width on the right, and Acuna providing width on the left as they normally do, but this is dangerous for several reasons. For example, you are leaving Mbappe 1 v1 with Molina, very very risky especially since Di Maria is 35 and can't really track back. If he has to be worried about tracking back, then you are losing the entire purpose for having him there, and if you have a midfielder cover Mbappe like England did with Bellingham, then they get outnumbered in the midfield and Greizmann will be dangerous. Plus that's not even the biggest danger, that'd be Acuna v Dembele, . IF Acuna is to go up to provide width then he'll be leaving Dembele behind which is just bruh.

Which is why I think Scaloni may chose to go to a back 3 to handles these issues. Playing a 3 - 5 - 2 . So it will be like against Holland. The advantage here is to have Romero provide cover to Molina against Mbappe, and have Martinez provide cover to Acuna against Dembele, and stuff the midfield with Enzo, MacAllister and De Paul, and of course Messi and Alvarez up top. This would allow that midfield to compete with France, and he could task one of them to play on Greizmann when France have the ball, probably not De Paul since his energy and freedom of movement is needed to press all over the field, so maybe Mac Allister does that job.

Now while Argentina will be addressing all the issues France poses, it doesn't take away their width like the 4 - 4 - 2 does, they can still have Acuna and Molina go up and provide that width knowing there is adequate cover behind them, and Messi enjoys that switching play to the full back. Hopefully Acuna has used his time off to work on his final ball and decision making. This obviously means that Di Maria doesn't start.

The main issues I see with this system is that it leaves Otamendi 1v1 against Giroud which would be a mismatch. A possible solution could be to have Romero play central and Otamendi to his right, but do you want rash Otamendi facing up against Mbappe, even on the cover? or when a counter starts with Molina still high up? Then there is the case of overlapping full backs, and Theo is the only problem really. Kounde hardly ever gets forward, so maybe Messi can use his fear factor here. During defending phases, Messi likes to drop to the right side of the field, I'd like to think Theo will think twice about bombing forward with Messi sitting on his spot.

But then again, Scaloni might just think Di Maria's creativity is too much not to have and find other solutions.

[tbuxt]

The funny thing is, it doesn't matter if you surround Mbappe, he can still get the ball to a teammate. And he proved that multiple times just last game.

[CharlesOffdensen]

Griezmann is underrated. He helps so much in both attack and defense. For me he is the man of this tournament.

[randomstuffchanelkg]

Im rooting for Argentina to win because its Messi's last but hot damn France's team is too good. The depth is just scary to think that their 2nd string and even third can be first team players for other top clubs and countries. Imaginr this team woth Benzema, pogba, and kante healthy.

[Wladislav]

I am still expecting Di Maria to play a role in this match. I wonder why you didn't mention him at all.
- From what we've heard, he's fit to play.
- He's a strong attacking threat, especially on the right flank.
- He has a reputation for making a big impact in finals.
- This is his final match for Argentina.

[juanfranciscocormick]

Álvarez is also running a lot in defense to compensate for Messi, which is incredible considering how good he has been in attack. The hole team ir really compromise with the cause

[fredrik]

Who's the best in the world? Well, the Tifo production team obviously.

[jordan_]

De Paul sorta plays that Rakitic role we saw while he was at Barca. A crucial role if you want a balanced right side with Messi.

[yestoES]

I think it’s truly hard to tell until we see those first 15 min and see how each team is playing that specific day.

[adnannour]

As long as Argentina plays like they played against brazil on CA a year ago & as finalissimo, I believe Argentina can beat france.

[JoshHenderson]

I think France have the advantage just by having more plans B through Z. If you mark Mbappe out the game, they go more direct and play through Giroud. If you want to get in the trenches, they have plenty of enforcers throughout the pitch that are more than happy to do that, including Griezmann who will press you until he collapses. I just think they're more versatile.

[ethanpenaranda]

We know France can counter, play through balls to the wings, or cross in for headers so I think it all comes down to Argentinas tactics. Di María is a big game player who is now fully fit but if they start with 3 attackers, the fullbacks get isolated for 1v1 against Mbappe and dembele which is what they want

[mohdnazri]

lets be honest here, all messi fans want to see one last "ankara messi" moment. And there is no better time to do it than during the world cup final.

[GeeGeezrz]

Not sure why all the focus on Mbappe. Griezmann has been a different class in this World Cup.