Dreams, no matter how fiercely they are clung to, endure only so long before reality intervenes. And fa ew realities in modern football strike with the cold, clinical efficiency of Kylian Mbappé. In France’s pulsating 4–3 victory over Argentina, the 19-year-old did not just score twice and win a penalty; he dismantled the illusion that Lionel Messi might somehow drag a flawed, disjointed team all the way to glory.
France, who had drifted through the group stage with a
cautious, almost reluctant gait, suddenly ignited. Their win propels them into
a tantalizing quarterfinal against Uruguay. For Messi, meanwhile, this World
Cup ends in a familiar posture of resignation — shoulders hunched beneath a
nation’s impossible hopes.
A Portrait of
Disarray
How did Argentina — a nation that lives and breathes
football — come to this sorry state, an awkward patchwork of mismatched pieces?
It is a question more tragic than tactical. Their only unifying thread was a
fragile hope: that Messi might make sense of the chaos. But hope is no substitute
for a plan. Against a French side untroubled by Argentina’s storied mythos, that
void was ruthlessly exposed.
That myth clung desperately to Javier Mascherano, manifest
in every lung-bursting tackle and every grimace of defiance. At 34, he ended
his international career here, a warrior whose blade had long dulled. Coach
Jorge Sampaoli, echoing an old refrain, praised his players’ spirit. They
fought, he insisted — and fight they did — but once France carved out a
two-goal cushion midway through the second half, Argentina’s World Cup had
already slipped beyond reach.
There were whispers of a new Maracanazo, of a journey
echoing 1990, when Argentina staggered early but clawed their way to the final.
But such comparisons crumble on inspection. That 1990 side could defend; this
one merely chased shadows. Argentina’s back line was not so much a wall as the
ghost of one.
Tactical Fault Lines
Sampaoli’s latest gamble — deploying Messi as a false nine,
Argentina’s fourth tactical experiment in as many games — only deepened the
incoherence. Bereft of a true focal point, Argentina’s wide players often found
themselves lofting hopeful crosses into a void. Defensive solidity remained a
mirage. “We tried to surround him with players, to create conditions for Messi
to shine,” Sampaoli offered. It was an assessment as generous as it was
strained.
Worse still, Argentina’s insistence on a high defensive line
against Mbappé’s blistering pace bordered on the suicidal. It raised the old
tactical question: was France’s attack truly fluid, or merely made to look so
by Argentine folly? On this evidence, the answer leans decisively toward both.
France’s Calculated
Brilliance
From the outset, France’s approach was pragmatic. They set
up in a flexible 4-4-2 — shading into a 4-3-3 in possession — with Blaise
Matuidi, a natural holding midfielder, deployed on the left to provide balance.
His presence, alongside the tireless Ngolo Kanté and the expansive Paul Pogba,
ensured that even as France sparkled going forward, they remained anchored in
discipline.
Mbappé, restored to the starting lineup after being rested
against Denmark, was electric. Positioned on the right, he feasted on the
reckless positioning of Nicolás Tagliafico. Twice in devastating fashion, he
exploited acres of space behind Argentina’s line: once to win a penalty
converted by Antoine Griezmann, and later for a breathtaking solo run that
ended with a composed finish.
France’s directness was sharpened by Pogba’s probing long
passes, which repeatedly unlocked Argentina’s creaking back line. Unlike
Denmark, who had stifled France with compact, rigid defending, Argentina’s
porous shape practically invited catastrophe.
Defensive Mastery and
Rapid Transition
Without the ball, France morphed into a compact 4-4-2, with
Matuidi tucking in to crowd Messi out of his preferred right-half spaces.
France’s lines moved in sync, smothering Messi whenever he dropped deep to
collect. It forced him further and further from goal, reducing his influence to
hopeful sparks rather than sustained threats.
Meanwhile, France’s full-backs — Benjamin Pavard and Lucas
Hernandez — were alert to the danger from Ángel Di María and Cristian Pavón.
They won duels early and often, then surged forward to supplement attacks. It
was Hernandez’s drive and cross that eventually found its way to Pavard, whose
sublime outside-foot volley to make it 2-2 was a moment of sheer, ungovernable
beauty.
Argentina’s Fleeting
Sparks
Argentina did produce moments to stir the soul. Di María’s
thunderbolt from 30 yards temporarily leveled the match, a reminder of
football’s capacity for sudden, improbable poetry. Messi later conjured a
clever cross to set up Sergio Agüero’s stoppage-time header, trimming the
deficit to 4-3. But it was a gesture more elegiac than threatening — the last
hand reaching from beneath the soil.
A Study in Contrasts
So ends another Messi-era World Cup, not with the coronation
many longed for, but with a sobering lesson: football is no fairytale. It is a
game of systems — and of stars who flourish within them. France offered a model
of that balance, combining structural rigour with the raw, exhilarating chaos of
Mbappé’s pace and ingenuity. On the day Didier Deschamps became France’s
longest-serving manager, he could take quiet satisfaction in having chosen
function over fantasy.
Argentina, by contrast, depart as a case study in tactical
ambiguity — slow at the back, disorganised in design, tragically over-reliant
on Messi’s fleeting genius. The scoreline, a thrilling 4-3, told one story. The
gulf in organization and purpose told another, more decisive one.
In the end, it was not just about who had the brighter star, but who built the better stage for him to shine. On this day, France’s stage was clear, sturdy, and brilliantly lit. Argentina was a crumbling platform, held together by the fragile threads of hope — and by the time reality arrived in the form of Kylian Mbappé, it was far too late to hold the dream together.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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