World Cup final serves up thrills and spills

It was a staggering world cup final that beggared belief and which was chock-full of hugely dramatic twists and turns.

For immense chunks of the final though, Argentina were clearly the better side and they established a 2-nil lead which seemed to have assured them of victory with the minutes ticking away.

However, in the 80^th minute, Mbappe had other ideas as he brilliantly netted a spot-kick to reduce the deficit.

Entertainingly though, Mbappe’s heroics did not end there as precisely one minute later the Gallic football player par excellence netted a beautifully executed and unstoppable volley that went directly into the corner of the Argentinian net.

Thus, with the scintillating final now delicately poised at 2-2, extra time would be needed to decisively settle the epic contest.

And, in extra time, the established pattern of the pulsating encounter remained the same with Argentina edging in front via Lionel Messi before Mbappe again scored the leveler which meant that the score was deadlocked at 3-3.

With both teams having canceled each other out during 120 minutes of absolutely spell-binding football, a penalty shootout would be required to decide which team would seal victory on football’s grandest stage.

Sadly for France, the pressure of the monumental occasion seemed to get the better of them as two of their players in Koman and Tchouameni sadly missed the target.

And with the Argentinian players displaying nerves of steel, none of their players missed their spot-kicks which handed them their third world cup victory.

Indeed, it was a world cup final for the ages in the illogically glorious sport of football.