The final match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the 22nd edition of FIFA's competition for men's national football teams, was played at Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, on 18 December 2022 (Qatari National Day), and was contested by Argentina and defending champions France. With a record 1.5 billion people watching on television, the final became one of the most widely watched televised sporting events in history.
The tournament was contested by hosts Qatar and 31 other teams who emerged victorious from the qualification phase, which was organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 32 teams competed in a group stage, from which 16 teams qualified for the knockout stage. En route to the final, Argentina finished first in Group C, first losing to Saudi Arabia 2–1, then defeating both Mexico and Poland 2–0. They then defeated Australia 2–1 in the round of 16, the Netherlands in the quarter-final through a penalty shoot-out after a 2–2 draw in extra time, and Croatia in the semi-final 3–0. France finished first in Group D with two wins and one loss (4–1 win over Australia, 2–1 win over Denmark, and a 1–0 loss to Tunisia). They defeated Poland 3–1 in the round of 16, England 2–1 in the quarter-final, and Morocco 2–0 in the semi-final. The final took place in front of 88,966 spectators and was refereed by Szymon Marciniak.
Argentina took a 1–0 lead after Lionel Messi scored from a penalty kick in the 23rd minute. Ángel Di María made it 2—0 in the 36th minute with a low shot into the corner of the goal after a sweeping Argentina counterattack. France failed to make a shot on goal for the vast majority of the match, until Kylian Mbappé scored two goals within 97 seconds (the first of which was from a penalty kick), making the score 2–2 in the 81st minute. During extra time, Messi scored again to give Argentina a 3–2 lead. Mbappé scored a second penalty to tie the game 3–3 with just a few minutes remaining, becoming the second male player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final after Geoff Hurst in 1966. Argentina won the ensuing penalty shoot-out 4–2 to win their third World Cup, and their first since 1986.
It was the second time that Argentina reached the World Cup final after losing their opening match, the other occasion being in 1990. It was the second time that a team won the tournament after losing their opening match, following Spain in 2010. France became the first team in history to score three goals in a World Cup final and lose. Messi was named the man of the match and won the Golden Ball as FIFA's best player of the tournament. He became the first player to win a second World Cup Golden Ball, having previously won it in 2014. The 2022 final was ranked by the football media and fans alike as one of the greatest World Cup finals, and one of the greatest matches in the history of the sport.
Background Argentina had previously won the World Cup in 1978 and 1986. They had finished as runners-up in 1930, 1990 and 2014. After the 2014 final loss, they lost two consecutive Copa América finals to Chile, in 2015 and 2016. After being eliminated from the 2018 World Cup in the first knockout round, and finishing third in the 2019 Copa América, Argentina's newly appointed coach Lionel Scaloni led them to their first international title since 1993 when they defeated defending champions Brazil 1–0 in the 2021 Copa América final, handing captain Lionel Messi his first senior international title. After defeating Italy in the 2022 Finalissima, Argentina were considered one of the favourites to win the 2022 World Cup.
France were the defending champions from the 2018 World Cup, which made this the first time since the 2002 final that a team had made consecutive appearances in the final, and the first time since 1998 that the title holders qualified for the subsequent final—both feats were achieved by Brazil. France had also previously won the World Cup in 1998. France also reached the 2006 final, but lost to Italy in a penalty shoot-out. As defending champions, France also entered the 2022 World Cup as one of the favourites to win. They aimed to become the third country to successfully defend a World Cup title, after Italy in 1938 and Brazil in 1962. France manager Didier Deschamps was seeking to become the second manager to win two men's FIFA World Cup titles, after Vittorio Pozzo with Italy in 1934 and 1938. Having won the 1998 tournament as a player, Deschamps was also seeking to become the third person to win three World Cup titles, after Pelé (all three as a player) and Mário Zagallo (two as a player, one as a manager).
The two nations met in the knockout stage for the second straight World Cup. In 2018 in Russia at the Kazan Arena in the round of 16, France won the encounter 4–3 in what The Independent called "one of the greatest World Cup games of all time". Antoine Griezmann opened the scoring with a penalty before Ángel Di María and Gabriel Mercado put Argentina in front, with France then scoring the next three goals courtesy of Benjamin Pavard's volley outside of the box – which was later voted as the goal of the tournament – and then Kylian Mbappé twice. Sergio Agüero reduced the deficit to one in stoppage time, but Argentina was unable to equalise and send the match to extra time.
The match ball for the 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-finals, match for third place and final was announced on 11 December 2022. It was a variation of the Adidas Al Rihla used in the rest of the tournament named the Adidas Al-Hilm, meaning "The Dream" in Arabic, a reference to every nation's dream of lifting the FIFA World Cup. Whilst the technical aspects of the ball are the same, the colour is different from the Al-Rihla balls used in the group stages and preceding knockout games, with a Gold Metallic, maroon, Collegiate Burgundy, and red design, a reference to the national colours of host nation Qatar and the golden colours shared by the final's venue Lusail Stadium and the FIFA World Cup Trophy. It is the fifth special ball for FIFA World Cup final matches, after the +Teamgeist Berlin, Jo'bulani, Brazuca Final Rio, and Telstar Mechta.
Venue The final was played at Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, located about north of the city centre of Doha. The stadium was intended to host the final as part of Qatar's World Cup bid, and was confirmed as the final venue on 15 July 2020. The stadium was allocated to also host nine previous World Cup matches, with six in the group stage and three other knockout fixtures.
Lusail Stadium, owned by the Qatar Football Association, was built as part of Qatar's winning bid for the World Cup. The stadium was designed by British firm Foster and Partners and Populous, supported by MANICA Architecture. The stadium uses solar power to be cooled and is claimed to have a carbon zero footprint. Construction began in April 2017, and was planned to finish in 2020. Completion of the stadium was postponed, with construction ultimately finished in November 2021. The stadium hosted its first match, the Lusail Super Cup, on 9 September 2022, later than expected.
Route to the final
Argentina + Argentina's route to the final Opponent Result 1–2 2–0 2–0 2–1 3–0
Drawn in group C and coming off a three-year, 36-game-long unbeaten streak, Argentina were defeated in their opening game 2–1 by Saudi Arabia. Lionel Messi's opener from the penalty spot was followed by several disallowed Argentina goals which were ruled offside. Immediately after half-time, Saudi Arabia stunned Argentina with two goals from Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari in a span of five minutes before shutting out any further attempts by the South Americans in a disciplined defensive performance. However, the Argentines bounced back from the shock loss to overcome Mexico 2–0 after a long-range effort by Messi who then assisted Enzo Fernández for the second, reigniting their World Cup hopes. Boosted by the win, Argentina then beat Poland with the same scoreline with goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Julián Alvarez despite a first-half penalty miss from Messi, taking first place in Group C and condemning both Mexico and Saudi Arabia to World Cup elimination.
In the round of 16, the Argentines found themselves matched against group D runners-up Australia; Messi's first-ever knockout-stage goal was followed by an astute goal by Alvarez, who intercepted Australian goalkeeper Mathew Ryan to finish into an empty net as Argentina overcame Australia 2–1, despite an own goal from Fernández creating a frantic finish which required a late save from point-blank range by Emiliano Martínez. Continuing a rivalry, they proceed to square off against the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. In a controversial match noted for its dramatic nature, chaotic atmosphere, and fury between both teams, it saw Argentina lead by two goals coming from Nahuel Molina and a penalty from Messi, but succumbed to two late goals by Wout Weghorst as regulation time ended 2–2 after 90 minutes; neither could find the breakthrough in extra time and penalties were used to decide the winner. Emiliano Martínez saved the first two Dutch penalties from Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis, while only Fernández missed for Argentina as Lautaro Martínez scored the decisive last kick of the game, a result reminiscent of their 2014 most recent, also knockout stage meeting and sending them through the semi-finals, as they meet 2018 runners up Croatia. In a rematch of the 2018 encounter when Croatia had won 3–0, Argentina decisively beat Croatia by the same scoreline. Lionel Messi scored a first-half penalty before Alvarez scored a solo effort five minutes later. Messi then assisted Alvarez for his double in the second half, as Argentina booked their place in the final for the second time in eight years.
France + France's route to the final Opponent Result 4–1 2–1 0–1 3–1 2–1 2–0
France started their World Cup campaign as the defending world champions, having won the most recent tournament in Russia, and was drawn in group D. Their first meeting was against AFC representative Australia. The French suffered a shock deficit after nine minutes due to a goal by Craig Goodwin, but were able to stage a comeback with a double from Olivier Giroud together with goals from Adrien Rabiot and Kylian Mbappé to win 4–1. Empowered by the win, France overcame a highly organised and threatening Denmark side with Mbappé striking twice in the second half, despite conceding an equaliser from Andreas Christensen. France won 2–1 and became the first team to progress to the knockout stage of the World Cup in Qatar and the first European world champions to do so since 1994. With progression assured, France rotated most of their team, resting their key players for the final game against a desperate Tunisia; France resultantly lost 1–0 courtesy of a goal by French-born Wahbi Khazri before having an equaliser by Antoine Griezmann disallowed. France maintained top of the group due to a superior goal difference over Australia.
In the round of 16, France overcame group C runners-up Poland 3–1 with goals from Giroud and Mbappé, despite conceding a late penalty from Robert Lewandowski. The quarter-finals saw France battling old rivals England in a tense match, with France defeating England 2–1 with goals from Aurélien Tchouaméni and Giroud; England found an equaliser for 1–1 courtesy of a penalty by Harry Kane but a second penalty to equalise the game was missed by Kane, granting France a place in the semi-finals. France then faced the biggest underdog of the tournament, Morocco, who had beaten both Iberian representatives Spain and Portugal in the process; the French were able to end the history-making run by the African nation with two goals from Théo Hernandez and Randal Kolo Muani for a 2–0 result. France reached their second consecutive World Cup final for the first time in their history.
Pre-match