Heartbeats of football fans worldwide are increasing as the FIFA World 2022 Qatar Final draws near.
As the Final will be played on December 18, 2022, world cup fever has reached its peak.
Speculations are rampant everywhere.
Is it France or Argentina?
As you may know, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which started on November 20, is the first World Cup ever staged during the Northern Hemisphere winter. The FIFA World Cup is typically hosted in the Northern Hemisphere during the summer, following the conclusion of the European football season.
But because of the extreme heat in Qatar in the summer, Qatar 2022 has been scheduled to take place in the fall and winter. Additionally, it will be the first time a World Cup is hosted by an Arab nation.
Qatar 2022 will also be the first World Cup to be held in Asia since South Korea and Japan hosted the 2002 edition, which Brazil won.
Although they had already left the tournament in the group stage, the host nation, Qatar, an AFC member, made its World Cup debut this year.
An estimated $200 billion is being spent by Qatar on infrastructure projects, including the building of hotels, motorways, and stadiums. As a result, the forthcoming event will rank among the priciest World Cups ever held. Cities that serve as hosts, such as Doha, Lusail, Al Wakrah, and Al Rayyan, are situated close to one another.
As a result, traveling from one venue to another wouldn’t be too difficult for visitors.
Another noteworthy fact is that Al Bayt and Al Wakrah, Qatar’s two most isolated stadiums, are only 90 miles apart. The fact that Qatar experiences distressingly high daytime temperatures are one of the most significant things to keep in mind about the country serving as the FIFA 2022 host.
Qatar devised a bold method to address the problem.
The FIFA World Cup will be held in stadiums with full air conditioning for the first time ever. All eight stadiums will be completely air-conditioned in Qatar, ensuring a relaxing watching experience.
The World Cup 2022 has generated some amazing football and surprises, which has added to the significance of the sporting event.
There were countless suspenseful thrillers with an aura of unpredictability in the group stages. This competition has produced shock after shock, with 28 goals scored in the Round of 16 games.
FIFA World Cup 2022 had an extraordinarily thrilling quarter-final stage as the competition moved toward the conclusion, where spectators witnessed some spectacular goals, suspenseful penalty shootouts, high-octane drama, and some significant heartbreaks.
As the tournament nears its conclusion, FIFA has also unveiled a new match ball for the semifinals and championship. Adidas, a German maker of sporting goods, has unveiled a new ball with the Arabic name A l Hilm, which means “The Dream” in English. According to Nick Craggs, General Manager, Football, Adidas, this ball will take the place of the Official Match Ball used during the group stages of the World Cup. Al Hilm “represents a beacon of light,” according to Craggs, in a statement issued by FIFA.
As they say, the dream is still alive for Argentina and French admirers everywhere.
Whose wish will be fulfilled?
Argentina or France?
Millions of viewers from practically every nation in the world will tune in, united by their love of the game.
We’ve all been waiting for this moment, when Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, and Olivier Giroud will represent France against Lionel Messi, Julian Alvarez, and Emiliano Martinez representing Argentina in a heavyweight fight. With only a few players from 2018, the French squad in one corner is attempting a repeat.
In the opposite corner, the best player of this generation is competing in his final World Cup game and attempting to complete his collection of hardware.
Whatever happens on Sunday, one country will end up with a third star above its crest and will be two victories away from tying Brazil for the most World Cup triumphs.
At this point, Lionel Messi’s first World Cup victory seems inescapable. Argentina can punish France for balancing their lineup with Theo Hernandez at left back even though they have only done what is necessary to complete the task. Argentina has a stronger defense than the opposition and has demonstrated versatility in defeating opponents. Messi will win the World Cup and the Golden Boot, but it will depend on the perseverance of his teammates to make sure of it.
It is regarded as a timeless classic. Messi must face Mbappe, who is perhaps the best player in the world. On Sunday afternoon at the Lusail Iconic Stadium, the thrilling final of the Qatar World Cup 2022 will begin as Argentina and the defending champions France compete for global dominance.
France, colloquially known as Les Bleus, who secured their spot in the final with a 2-0 victory over African trailblazers Morocco in the semi-finals, will take the field on the Lusail turf as the first champions in 24 years.
With a 3-0 victory against Croatia in the final four, Lionel Scaloni’s team prevented them from reaching the championship game twice in a row.
As a result, the attention of the pre-match build-up has naturally been on one player.
Lionel Messi is that person.
This week, a Lionel Messi video has been making the rounds on social media. A journalist waxing poetic about the 35-year-ageless old’s traits and telling him just how much he inspires all the lads and girls back home, not one of his spectacular strikes or awe-inspiring assists.
With the exception of the major item on his football bucket list, the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner has completed nearly all of the items. Screenwriters are already hard at work developing the scene in which Messi hoists the coveted trophy in the air during his final World Cup game.
A penny for Argentina’s thoughts when Salem Al-stunning Dawsari’s Saudi Arabia goal sailed past Emiliano Martinez or when Wout Weghorst almost pulled off the impossible for the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, but the Copa America champions are determined to keep their names off the list of illustrious nations like Spain, Belgium, and Germany that have committed the unenviable feat of killing all the giants.
Only Spain in 2010 managed to win the World Cup after losing their opening match, but Scaloni’s team has only faced an average of six shots per game in Qatar, and they will need to use this defensive prowess to prevent Messi’s teammate Kylian Mbappe from having a field day.
After keeping the World Cup from returning to England, France faced a true test of their mettle against the first-ever African team to go to the semifinals. They were definitely given a few scares by a Morocco side who were encouraged by their always raucous fan base.
The Qatar tournament will be remembered by fans for its enduring capacity to generate shock after shock, with teams like Morocco and Japan winning over the hearts of the neutrals. However, a thick black cloud will always loom over competition due to the pressing issues regarding migrant worker deaths, how the LGBT community is treated, and other human rights issues.
Even, Sepp Blatter, who served as FIFA’s eighth president from 1998 to 2015, said that the Gulf nation should not have hosted the world cup in the first place.
In 13 matches in all tournaments, Argentina and France will face off in the championship match on Sunday. The South American champions have won six of those matches, compared to just three victories for their European opponents, while three more have resulted in a draw.
The most recent matchup between the two teams, though, was in a thrilling 4-3 Bleus victory during the World Cup quarterfinals of 2018, with the thunderbolt from Benjamin Pavard still fresh in the minds of the France crowd.
Messi versus Mbappe. Tchouameni vs. Fernandez. Mac Allister vs. Griezmann. In a World Cup final where goals are absolutely a guarantee, countless individual battles should determine the tournament’s outcome.
In football, happy endings are never guaranteed, but fans worldwide may anticipate seeing Messi lift the 18-karat gold trophy in victory. Regardless of whatever team, Argentina or France, gives the winning ovation, world cup fever will continue every four years. Football is a beautiful game because it is governed by the elegance of simplicity. Many casual football fans, many of whom get to enjoy the unique pleasure of supporting clubs from outside their country, reduce the technical analysis to mere jargon. Despite our growing reliance on technology, football is still incredibly straightforward and effective. It recreates the drama of real life in an hour and a half or more, unlike any other kind of entertainment. It creates a peculiar feedback loop that allows the struggles of everyday life to be seen through the lens of sportsmanship.
Martin Jacques, a British journalist, editor, scholar, political analyst, and author, is correct when he states:
The World Cup is not just a great global sporting event, it is also inscribed with much deeper cultural and political importance.
-The End-
