France 4-3 Argentina
This could easily have been the FIFA World Cup 2018 Final.
Given the pedigree of these two footballing heavyweights – three times world champions between them – it certainly would not have been out of keeping.
Yet, perhaps this was the day a star was born instead.
Perhaps this was the day that France, for the first time, believed they could even be contesting next month’s showpiece.
Highlights of the game
For two sides that had not even come close to finding their best form to date, this clash in Kazan was always going to be intriguing.
The reality facing both was scary: one big mistake and it was time for the next plane home.
In Didier Deschamps’ 80th match in charge of the national team, the questions remained – why couldn’t the 1998 World Cup-winning captain quite get the best out of the talented side at his disposal?
In their opening match of the tournament against Australia, Les Bleus fielded their youngest team in a World Cup match since the inaugural tournament in 1930.
Perhaps his faith in such youth was misplaced?
Well, this contest certainly proved otherwise.
Step forward Kylian Mbappe.
Two goals in four minutes announced his arrival on the big stage, first driving a low shot underneath Franco Armani who possibly should have done better.
Then Olivier Giroud produced an inch-perfect pass and the 19-year-old didn’t even break his stride, firing the ball into the bottom-right corner.
Pace, power and precision – he is the first teenager to score twice in a World Cup match since the great Pele for Brazil against Sweden in 1958.
It seemed to suggest France can be a force to be reckoned with after being largely underwhelming up until now.
On saying that, their path was positively serene in their group compared to the fraught passage path of Argentina, although a game of this magnitude was still hard to predict with SBOBET.
It seemed France were well on their way when Antoine Griezmann coolly converted a 13th-minute penalty after Marcos Rojo – the hero of their group-deciding win against Nigeria – felled Mbappe who had embarked on a superb solo run.
From then, there was little in the next half-hour to suggest Argentina could upset France despite dominating possession.
The decision of Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli to leave both Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain on the bench seemed unusual, as did the decision to play Angel Di Maria – a player of undoubted talent but has regularly gone ‘missing’ when the going gets tough.
Yet, out of nowhere, his inclusion was justified.
He brought the South Americans back into the game four minutes before half-time when a spectacular left-footed shot into the top corner from 30 yards.
It seemed to lift their spirits and, two minutes after the restart, they were in front when a Lionel Messi shot struck Gabriel Mercado and completely wrong-footed Hugo Lloris.
After their FIFA World Cup 2018 results so far, few had seen this coming. Deschamps’ obituaries may just have begun being penned when a stunner from full-back Benjamin Pavard on the edge of the box brought Les Bleus level – think Nacho but slightly better!
It was all up for grabs at that point, but then came along the French whizz-kid to win the seven-goal thriller.
Despite a late header from Aguero, set up by Messi, the whistle brought the end to an epic encounter and it was hard not to feel for the disconsolate number 10 who seems to carry the weight of a nation on his shoulders every time he plays for La Albiceleste.
France have reached the final of the past two World Cups staged on European soil.
Take a look at the FIFA World Cup 2018 odds on them reaching a third.
Key statistics
This was Argentina’s 15th game under Sampaoli, and he is still to name an unchanged side.
This was the first time the nations had met in the knockout stage of a World Cup.
Amazingly, this was also only the third time the two had met in 32 years – and the other two were friendlies in 2007 and 2009 (Argentina won 1-0 and 2-0 respectively).
Apart from penalty shoot-outs, France have only lost one of their last 12 games in a knockout World Cup match.
What’s next?
A quarter-final against Uruguay or Portugal – in what would be a repeat of the Euro 2016 final – now beckons for France in Novgorod on Friday.
It’s the trip home for under-pressure Sampaoli who may find his position under threat. A game against Guatemala on September 7 seems a long way away from the glamour of this tie.
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