Doha - (AFP) - Lionel Messi broke the doors of history and wrote his name in the book of football legends when he fought with his comrades to the last breath against defending champion France and won by penalty kicks in the "Final of the Century" in the Qatar 2022 World Cup, picking up a historic third star for Argentina.

With this victory, "Al-Barghout" achieved its long-awaited ultimate goal after four disappointing appearances, most notably losing the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil against Germany in the final breaths of overtime.

And after the quorum of titles was completed in his coffers, the Argentine captain engraved his name in the book of legends, along with his late compatriot Diego Armando Maradona, who won the second title for “Albiceleste” in 1986.

By participating in this final, Messi broke the German record, Lothar Matthaus, as the player who played the most matches in the finals, with 26 matches.

By participating originally in the Qatari finals, Messi reached another record represented by the number of World Cups he played (5), similar to his Portuguese rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who left the tournament in the quarter-finals, and Matthews also and others.

And after scoring seven goals in the Qatari World Cup, including five in the eighth, quarter, semi-final and final, to break his fast from scoring in the knockout stages of four versions, Messi raised his total score to 13 goals in the finals, to break the Argentine record registered in the name of Gabriel Batistuta (10 in 12 matches). .

Messi's first goal was in the finals in 2006 when he entered the last quarter of an hour of the second round match against Serbia and Montenegro when his country was leading 3-0, adding the fifth after he had passed the fourth goal scored by Hernan Crespo, becoming at the age of 18 years and 357 days the youngest recorder. in the history of his country in the World Cup.

After a closing ceremony that began with music and some poetry delivered by Tamim Al-Barghouti, the atmosphere flared up in the stadium with the performance of the official World Cup songs, before the performance of the two national anthems of France by Egyptian singer Farah Al-Dibany, and of Argentina by Lale Esposito.

And then the ball began to roll with an Argentine rush leading Messi to the sight of the fans thirsting to see him lift the precious cup, and to the rhythm of their cheers that "devoured" the atmosphere from the first moments.

Coach Lionel Scaloni's step was effective with the inclusion of Di Maria, so he moved the left corridor and disturbed the French, who relied on Jules Condé for coverage, so gaps were opened that yielded promising opportunities that were not completed at first.

In the 17th minute, Messi received a ball and turned it into a clever through ball to the right at Alexis McAllister, but his cross crossed the "flea" and Di Maria shot it high and far.

The French responded three minutes later with a free kick following a mistake, which was executed by Antoine Griezmann, and Olivier Giroud raised it with a header that crossed the crossbar of goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez (20).

Then, the first Argentine rain came in the 23rd minute, after the referee awarded the Argentines a penalty kick following a foul on Osman Dembele against Di Maria inside the area. The “flea” translated it as a goal despite attempts to confuse Griezmann.

With this goal, Messi became the first player in history to score in the group stages, the final price, the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, and the final.

The suffering of the French increased when the veteran Di Maria himself returned to add the second goal for Argentina in the 36th minute, after a series of wonderful passes that Messi started from the middle of the field and ended with a cross from McAllister, who successfully followed it into the net of Hugo Lloris and drowned in tears of joy.

With the exception of the loss against Saudi Arabia in its first match in the group stage, Argentina advanced with two clean goals over all its competitors in the World Cup.

The shock was great for coach Didier Deschamps, who resorted to two heavy early substitutions four minutes before the end of the regular time of the first half, so he took out Giroud and replaced him with Marcus Thuram, while Brandal Colo Moani replaced Dembele (41).

Deschamps, who dreamed of making history as the first coach after the Italian Vittorio Pozzo to achieve two World Cup titles in a row, said that it was "a first half to forget."

But the second did not start early for the "roosters", so they missed the threat of the Argentine goal until the last third of the hour, when Mbappe appeared.

A first shot in the 71st minute hit the Argentine goal, before he executed a penalty kick that the French got in the 80th minute, which he successfully translated, and equalized after one minute after a wonderful pass behind the defense line from Thuram, which he hit with a beautiful right to the left of Martinis (81).

Thuram tried to get a second penalty kick, so he fell into the Argentine penalty area, and the referee gave him a yellow card.

Messi almost ended it all in the 90 + 7 minute when he hit a powerful left ball from the outskirts of the penalty area, Lloris saved it, so the two teams ruled for two more halves.

In overtime, Messi regained the lead (108), before Mbappe equalized again from the penalty spot (118), scoring a hat-trick and equaling the Englishman Geoff Hurst in the 1966 final.

But the penalty shootout was decisive in the end 4-2, and smiled for Argentina