As France defeated Morocco 2-0, successfully advanced to the final, the ultimate battle of Qatar World Cup is about to begin. France vs. Argentina, this is a confrontation full of topics. They are the "Ace vs. Ace" between two absolute core players, Messi and Mbappe and , and it is another direct competition between the two teams after 4 years. Although Argentina has a better advantage in historical record, from the perspective of overall strength and performance, the French may have a greater chance of winning. For Deschamps , challenging the curse of " defending champion cannot win the championship" in the past 60 years is also a considerable pressure faced by the team. Is Argentina successful revenge or France continues to laugh? It will be announced Sunday night.
"Ace vs. Ace" Mbappe welcomes another chance to clear his name
When Mbappe meets Messi again, all this became very familiar. On the one hand, the two have been teammates in Paris Grande for two seasons and have become good partners in the forward line. On the other hand, once their names appear, they are like bringing people's thoughts back to the Russian World Cup four years ago. In the quarter-finals that year, France met Argentina. At that time, "Mr. M" was still a rising star, which shocked the world. He rushed all the way into the penalty area. Rojo, who was in a mess, could only stop him from moving forward by holding and falling. At that time, Mbappe became famous in one battle.
However, although he became the owner of the World Cup four years ago, there has been not much positive news about Mr. M in recent seasons. His personal progress and space are not as large as the outside world expects. On the contrary, a series of news on his off-court are a bit worried. This young and famous player may not really become a super giant who can compete with "Merro". It is under this pressure that Mbappe and his team began the journey of this World Cup. Although the team lacks at least 5 main players or rotation players including Pogba , Kanter, Benzema , the team has made rapid progress under the leadership of "Mr. M" and it is even more gratifying that Mbappe not only can score goals himself, but also can assist his teammates, which is very different from what people remembered in the past. Some analysts pointed out that if Mbappe can really lead the team to defend the World Cup in the end, as the absolute core, he will be one step closer to the "super giant", at least to the next level than now.
Of course, the same opportunity is also placed in front of Messi. If the last World Cup can end with the championship, it would be perfect. If you can still take away a Golden Boot Trophy, "Boss Mei" will probably wake up laughing while sleeping. So who will have the advantage in this ultimate showdown of "Ace vs. Ace"? The data website provides a comparison of their personal performance in the last two World Cups. In terms of playing time, Messi is 930 minutes and Mbappe is 1011 minutes. In terms of goals, Messi scored 6 goals and Mbappe scored 9 goals. However, in this World Cup, the two performed equally in goals. "Mr. M" and Messi scored 5 goals respectively, but the Frenchman's five goals were all mobile games, while the Argentine scored 3 penalty goals. In terms of assists, Messi has 5 assists and Mbappe has 2; in terms of creating opportunities, Messi has 28 times and Mbappe has 20 times. From this point of view, the two teams are actually comparable in competition of key figures in this focus final.
Although Argentina has the advantage in history, France is stronger now
Although France and Argentina seem to be in a half-way situation in the competition of core players, if we want to talk about overall strength and performance, the defending champion should still have a better advantage. Is it better than the " Gaul Rooster " with basically neat players like Kanter? This is indeed the case. Because they have reached the finals four times in the past seven World Cups, and under Deschamps, this European powerhouse, which was once famous for its "internal strife", played more pragmatically. Although the scenes are sometimes not good, the results are always good.
As far as the team is concerned, Argentina cannot be compared with France, because although France has "explosion points" like Mbappe, the team does not rely solely on one person or one point. Look at Griezmann's performance and Dembele's performance. They can always appear in key positions when needed. Their forward line with Mbappe and high center Giroud is enough to make every opponent frightened. You may be able to do your best to limit one Mbappe, but the "shadow forward" Griezmann and Dembele, who have extremely high "slide" attributes, will give you a fatal blow.
data shows that in history, France and Argentina have played 12 games in total, with Argentina having a certain advantage of 6 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses. In the World Cup, the two sides have played 3 times, with Argentina having 2 wins and 1 loss, and it is still the one that has the advantage. However, in the latest encounter, Argentina was educated by France. They lost 3-4 in Russia 4 years ago. Although the gap seems to be small, the team is still unable to wrestle the Frenchman . Now four years have passed, and Mbappe, who was extremely fast at that time, is still improving himself. Although Messi is still so unstoppable, time is unforgiving. At the age of 35, he may have exceeded the expectations of the outside world. Deschamps is also clear about the goal of the final. He said: "It's not about participating in the final, it's about winning."
challenged the "curse" to defend the champion, but it was actually more stressful.
7th World Cup and reached the finals in four times. The French have done a perfect job. In addition to the pressure given by their opponent Argentina to win the championship, they will also shoulder the important task of breaking the "curse", which is to become the first team to successfully defend the title in 60 years. For Deschamps' team, they are already setting new records and breaking curse after curse during this World Cup journey. When the statement "the defending champion was eliminated in the group stage" and "the defending champion is difficult to reach the final" no longer works, they encountered another new challenge, that is, whether they can become the third international player to successfully defend the title.
Since the first World Cup in 1930, this 90-year-old event has only successfully defended its title twice. They are the Italian team in 1938 and the Brazil team in 1962. Since then, even Brazil, which won the Golden Cup five times, Germany and Italy, which won the Cup four times, have failed to defend their titles successfully, and this is the uncertainty of the World Cup and football.
Foreign media reported that the French team is now the team that is more favored in the finals, and their pressure is obviously greater than that of Argentina. Although Messi's desire for the World Cup is far more than any one of the opposite French team's lineup, after all, Deschamps and his disciples have different identities, and the impact of doing something is also different. The last time the defending champion reached the final was Brazil in 1998, but they lost to the French team at that time, and unfortunately failed to realize their wish. Deschamps himself led the team to win the Hercules Cup . Therefore, he knows more about how difficult it is and how much pressure it is.
text/Beijing Youth Sports Zhang Kunlong
