On Sunday night, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar comes to an end as Argentina faces the defending champions France in what promises to be an exciting finale.
Despite Antoine Griezmann’s efforts to be all-action, this showpiece will unavoidably be billed as the matchup between Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain.
Qatar Sports Investment – who just so happen to own PSG – hedged their bets with a third celebrity forward, but the feted stars of the past and future (and present) pulled through following the quarter-final exit of Neymar’s Brazil.
Both Messi and Mbappe have five goals as they compete for the Golden Boot, but Messi is having a statistically better tournament because he has three assists as opposed to Mbappe’s two.
After missing the semi-final due to suspension, Lionel Scaloni will be able to welcome back Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel.
Acuna will compete with Nicolas Tagliafico for a starting position.
While Angel Di Maria has been dealing with muscular problems, and Alejandro Gomez is possibly dealing with an ankle issue, the Juventus forward could make his first start since the group stages in the final on Sunday despite not playing at all in the semi-final.
And if we were to speak about France, Adrien Rabiot was one of many players who Didier Deschamps described as having “flu-like symptoms” as he watched France’s semi-final match against Morocco from the team hotel.
While Dayot Upamecano travelled to the stadium but remained on the sidelines as he took care of his illness.
Deschamps is optimistic that both players will be able to participate in the championship game, though. The third player who has been reportedly impacted is Kingsley Coman, who is a question.
Even though this may be the game that determines the best team in the world, there are no perfect teams competing in this match. In fact, this year’s men’s World Cup is only the second time in history (and the first since 1978) that both of the finalists enter the championship match with a loss.
Argentina is still wildly dependent on one (admittedly brilliant) 35-year-old, who saved his best performance for a convincing semi-final win over Croatia.
And In spite of keeping their first clean sheet in Qatar against Morocco, France “suffered so much,” as Hugo Lloris acknowledged.
Without a clear favourite, there is enough talent on both sides for this game to be decided by a stroke of luck.
But this winter has provided plenty of evidence that a mistake may turn out to be both more likely and important. Mbappe and co. vs Argentina and Messi, this final is going right down to the wire!
1×2 Betting Odds
Messi vs Mbappe. Tchouameni vs. Fernandez. Mac Allister vs. Griezmann. In a World Cup final where goals are unquestionably a guarantee, countless individual battles should determine the tournament’s outcome.
The tendency for quick-fire counterattacks should still be highlighted for Deschamps’s ill-fated team, who has struggled to find the ideal defensive formula in Qatar and may have lost to Morocco by a different score on a different day.
However, an Argentina team that has only failed to score more than once against Saudi Arabia can both expose the weaknesses of Les Bleus’ backline and utilise their own defensive prowess.
But what does the betting market think?
Well, the betting market has absolutely no idea how this one will play out with near dead even odds!
The odds that Argentina wins the World Cup, and Messi has his fairy-tale ending stands @ 2.86.
While a back-to-back title for France, and 2 World Cup titles for the 23-year-old Mbappe, has the odds @ 2.92.
And the odds that the match ends in a stalemate, after the 90 mins are up and goes to extra time and possibly penalties, stands @ 3.1.
Total goals over/under
The odds that the total number of goals score will be over 2.5, stands @ 2.5.
While the odds that the total number of goals will be under 2.5, stands @ 1.61.
Any final of the World Cup is expected to be played with caution, and that fact is clearly reflected with better odds for total number of goals to be under 2.5 goals.
