Fifa World Cup: How Martinez and Scaloni helped Argentina and Messi end years of heartbreak

In the end when the crestfallen French players dropped to their knees amid wild celebrations from the Argentinians on the field and in the stands, it was hard to make sense of what the world had just witnessed.

For the record, it was the final of this year’s football World Cup at the Lusail Iconic Stadium.

But what the cold record books would never reveal was the ordeal the football fans across the world were made to go through by these two incredibly resilient teams.

Outmuscled and outplayed until the 79th minute of a lop-sided contest, the Kylian Mbappe-inspired French came back from the dead.

The defending champions landed devastating blows to Argentina and Lionel Messi’s hopes of embracing the elusive World Cup trophy deep in the second half, overturning a 2-0 deficit to take the match into the extra time.

The two teams fought tooth and nail in the additional 30 minutes with each side scoring a goal, but there was nothing to separate them after 120-minutes.

Then it was in the penalty shooutout that Emiliano Martinez, the Argentine goalkeeper who had attended the last World Cup in 2018 as a fan, made two decisive saves.

Then Gonzalo Montiel converted Argentina’s fourth penalty to end the most nerve-racking final of the World Cup history.

“December 18th has just been announced as the day of the Argentine cardiologist,” Tim Vickery, British football writer and an expert on South American football, tweeted the end of this footballing madness.

Incredibly, Sergio Aguero, the former Argentina striker and Messi’s closest friend whose career came to an end abruptly last year following a heart problem, was still on his feet and jumping up and down with his former teammates on the ground.

“It was just an unbelievable final. It was great to be here, pleasure to be here. I've never seen anything like it and I don't think I'll ever see anything like it again,” wrote former England striker Allan Shearer on BBC’s website.

It was cruel to end a contest as epic as this with a penalty shootout.

And it was heartbreaking to see the dead expression of Mbappe, who scored a stirring hat trick and yet missed out on the chance to become the youngest player since Pele to win back-to-back World Cup titles.

Perhaps, Messi, 35, was destined to end his World Cup career with tears of joy.

Along with the half-fit Angel Di Maria, who scored Argentina’s delightful second goal in the 36th minute, Messi was one of the heroes of the night, showing great composure from the penalty spot twice, first in the 23rd minute and then in the shootout.

The talismanic playmaker also scored a goal from open play, albeit a scrappy one with his chest from close range in the 108th minute, to put Argentina tantalizingly close to victory.

It was the fifth goal of an incredible contest, but Argentina’s lead lasted only 10 minutes as France won a penalty again with two minutes to go for the final whistle.

Again it was Mbappe who scored from the spot, having already brought France back into it with two goals in the 79th minute and 81st minute.

In a nail-biting finish, both teams had chances to score the winner before the match went into penalty shootout.

It was in that shootout that Martinez completed the remarkable turnaround in his life.

From an Argentine fan in 2018, Martinez, who also made an astonishing save in the extra time before his heroics in the penalty shootout, is now the best goalkeeper of the World Cup tournament and a folk hero in Argentina.

In the middle of the Argentine team’s greatest triumph amid a massive economic crisis, it would be criminal to ignore the role played by Lionel Scaloni, their head coach.

Scaloni was coaching only an amateur youth team in 2016 when Messi, his former international teammate, announced his retirement after Argentina’s heartbreaking defeat in the Copa America final to Chile.

The former West Ham player had tweeted a picture of Messi and left a message on Twitter: “Don’t go Leo!”

Remarkably, after Argentina’s disastrous World Cup campaign in 2018, it was Scaloni who was named Argentina coach amid great cynicism.

He didn’t respond to any of the criticism directed at his lack of managerial experience at the highest level.

After his appointment, Scaloni first convinced Messi to come out of retirement and then built a system that finally allowed Messi to play with freedom in an Argentina shirt.

It was that system of closing the gaps in the midfield which helped Argentina overcome a stunning fightback from France on Sunday night in the greatest final ever seen in a World Cup.

And it was that system that eventually helped Messi retire, once and for all, with a smile on his face that football lovers will never forget.

Argentina’s 36-year wait for a World Cup victory ended with Messi lifting the beautiful trophy, with his place now firmly secured in the pantheon of all-time greats alongside Diego Maradona and Pele.

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