Argentina captain Lionel Messi scored twice and France striker Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick as a thrilling World Cup final finished 3-3 after extra time at the Lusail Stadium.
In an extraordinary night of high drama, Argentinian substitute Gonzalo Montiel stroked home the winning spot-kick to seal an agonising shoot-out loss for defending champions France.
France had fought back from 2-0 down and 3-2 down in extra-time to make it 3-3 and take the game to penalties.
Messi had given Argentina the lead from the penalty spot in the first half before Angel Di Maria made it 2-0.
The Argentinians looked to be cruising to victory until Mbappe scored twice in the 80th and 81st minutes to level it at 2-2.
France looked the likelier team to go on and win it, but Messi put Argentina 3-2 ahead in extra-time after poking home from close range after Lautaro Martinez’s shot was parried by France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
But there was more drama two minutes from the end of extra-time when Montiel conceded a penalty for handball.
Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Mbappe stepped up to score from the spot for the second time to take the game to penalties.
After 63 matches and 166 goals, the month-long footballing showpiece reached its climax at Doha’s 89,000-capacity Lusail Stadium on Sunday, with the eagerly anticipated final kicking off at 6:00 pm local time (1600 CET).
Messi, playing in his fifth and final World Cup, succeeded in leading Argentina to a first title since the Diego Maradona-inspired victory in Mexico City in 1986.
Messi, 35, has collected seven Ballon d’Or awards for the best player in the world, but his last trip to the World Cup final ended in the bitter disappointment of defeat to Germany in 2014.
The prolific Kylian Mbappe and a France team had aimed to become the first to win back-to-back World Cups since Pele’s Brazil in 1958 and 1962.
They may not have succeeded in that goal, but it was a personal achievement for Mbappe who became the first player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final since England’s Sir Geoff Hurst in the 1966 final against Germany.
Argentina’s campaign in Qatar was boosted by the presence of tens of thousands of supporters who have flocked to each of the team’s matches.
At least 40,000 Argentina supporters are estimated to be in Doha.
The passionate presence of Argentina fans has been one of the features of this unusual World Cup, played for the first time outside of its traditional slot in the middle of year.
Croatia beat Morocco 2-1 in the third-place playoff on Saturday, but the north Africans’ coach Walid Regragui predicted a team from Africa would win the World Cup in the next “15-20 years”.
The next World Cup in 2026 will be expanded to 48 teams and Africa will have nine guaranteed slots, up from five at present.
“With nine participants, we’re going to learn. In 15, 20 years, I’m sure an African team will win the World Cup because we’ll have learned,” said Regragui.
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