In the final on Sunday, Argentina will meet the winner of Wednesday's clash between defending champions France and Morocco.

The Argentine national team got their ticket to the World Cup final in Qatar on Tuesday after beating Croatia 3-0 on a dream night in Lusail with stellar performances from their strikers Lionel Messi and Julián Álvarez.

The Argentine captain opened the scoring with a penalty kick 34 minutes into the first half and 24 minutes into the second, after a memorable maneuver, assisted Julián for the third, who had widened the gap before the break, with a spectacular individual action.

On the night that equaled the German Lothar Matthäus as the footballer with the most appearances in the World Cups (25), Messi also became the top Argentine scorer in the competition with 11, one more than Gabriel Batistuta.

The Rosario star reached five conquests in this edition and equaled his teammate from Paris Saint-Germain Kylian Mbappé at the top of the scoring table. Along with Álvarez, he collected 9 of the 12 Argentine goals in Qatar 2022.

The team will play its sixth World Cup final next Sunday with the winner of the semifinal that France -defending the title- and Morocco will cheer on this Wednesday from 4:00 p.m. at the Al Bayt stadium.

The great definition will be at 12:00 in Lusail, where tonight more than 80,000 "albiceleste" followers of all nationalities raved about an eventual consecration.

The results are not always explained with development, and what happened during the first half fits into that category of matches. It is that until the opening of the scoreboard the game favored the Croats, not so much for arrivals but for ball management.

Argentina confirmed in the first 25 minutes the reputation of the midfield made up of Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic and Mateo Kovacic, who gave their team good circulation, helped by the wings and wingers to generate numerical superiority.

Scaloni, aware of this rival virtue , ordered the entry of Leandro Paredes to win the battle in that area, where Rodrigo De Paul and Enzo Fernández were the best by pressing and passing.

In fact, the situation that led to the penalty was generated by the ex-River Plate midfielder with a pass into space for Julián, who took advantage of a gap between the central defenders to come face to face with goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic, who attacked him at the time of the kick. definition.

Messi, with a low participation up to that moment, isolated by the team's lack of possession, tilted the result in Argentina's favor with an unassailable execution to the upper left corner.

Croatia felt the blow of being at a disadvantage and the trend of the game also changed in favor of the Argentine team.

Five minutes later, Julián made an amazing appearance: he blocked a cross in a defensive position, picked up the ball in his own half, at the height of the center circle, led a counterattack at sheer speed and finished before the goalkeeper left after being favored with two rebounds. before the mark of Jospi Juranovic and Borna Sosa.

With an audience in a state of delirium, the team had a growth of spirit that almost took it to the third before the break with a header from Alexis Mac Allister that Livakovic managed to swat it on the line.

Croatian coach Zlatko DalicHe went to the locker room with his eyes on the floor, shaking his head, incredulous at how the game was uphill for him in such a short period of time. The offensive modifications at halftime and at the beginning of the second half gave the team more play on the flanks.

Lionel Scaloni responded with the entry of Lisandro Martínez to form the 3-5 defensive line that has already given him good results in this World Cup. In this way, he was able to control Croatia's last attempts before the semifinal was fully resolved thanks to the genius of his captain.

Messi put together a personal move down the right wing, dragging the mark of Josko Gvardiol, a tough 20-year-old defender, and gave Julián the third to celebrate in front of the Argentine public.

This time the Argentine team did not have to suffer as it happened with Australia and the Netherlands in previous instances. The breadth of the result and the changes took away the rhythm of the game and turned it into a sweet wait for the final celebration.

Scaloni even had the luxury of giving minutes to players who had not played until now: Paulo Dybala, Ángel Correa and Juan Foyth (the only ones who have not seen action so far are goalkeepers Gerónimo Rulli and Franco Armani).

Argentina fulfilled its objective: it is once again a World Cup finalist and on Sunday, "whatever it takes", as its fans and the players themselves sang, it will go for the dream of the whole country. 

Source: FIFA.