Argentina vs France World Cup final preview: How to stream, start time, predictions and latest news

May 05, 2024

Argentina and France will play for one of sport’s greatest prizes on Sunday, December 18 as they meet in the World Cup final.

Four weeks of wall-to-wall football will finish with one of the game’s superstars lifting the famous trophy.

The showpiece match will be played in Qatar’s biggest arena, Lusail Stadium, and will be the 10th game of the tournament in the 88,000-seater.

Szymon Marciniak has been appointed as the match referee. It will be the Pole’s third game of the tournament after taking charge of each of these teams earlier in the World Cup.

He was the man in the middle for France’s group-stage win against Denmark and for Argentina’s last-16 victory over Australia.

The Athletic has live coverage of Argentina vs. France in the World Cup final.

What time is Argentina vs France?

The match kicks off at 6pm local time, which means it will start at 3pm in the UK. The coverage will be shown on both the BBC and ITV.

In the US, FOX and Telemundo will be showing the match and kick-off is at 10am EST and 7am PT.

Argentina operates on a time zone three hours behind the UK so kick-off there will be at 12pm, while it be at 4pm in France.

Team news

Argentina came through their semi-final unscathed and Lionel Scaloni will have the option to bring a couple of players into his starting XI.

Marcos Acuna has served his suspension and may replace Nicolas Tagliafico at left-back while Gonzalo Montiel is also back but won’t take the place of Nahuel Molina at right-back.

Scaloni has made changes throughout the knockout stage. He chose to field a back five against the Netherlands in the quarter-final before reverting to a four with an extra midfielder against Croatia.

Given the threat posed by France, and the quality of Lisandro Martinez, a better-stocked defence might win out ahead of the final.

Scaloni might opt to bring Lisandro Martinez back into the starting XI for the final (Photo: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

The team selection for the final is a bit more complex for Didier Deschamps. He was pretty settled on his starting XI throughout the tournament but lost Adrien Rabiot and Dayot Upamecano through illness ahead of the semi-final.

Youssouf Fofana didn’t quite look comfortable so should Rabiot return to full fitness, he should return. However, Ibrahima Konate looked really strong alongside Raphael Varane so Deschamps has a big decision to make in the heart of his defence.

There has been lots of talk about a potential return to the squad for Karim Benzema but the rest of the team should be unchanged.

Predicted line-ups

Argentina (5-3-2): (Emiliano) Martinez, Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Martinez, Acuna; De Paul, Fernandez, Mac Allister; Messi, Alvarez.

France (4-3-3): Lloris, Kounde, Varane, Konate, (Theo) Hernandez; Tchouameni, Rabiot, Griezmann; Dembele, Giroud, Mbappe.

The story so far

This World Cup threatened to be very different for Argentina after their first game. They were stunned by Saudi Arabia in that match which has made every game since feel like a knockout fixture.

Under that pressure, the South Americans have thrived and have won each of their matches since. Victories against Mexico and Poland saw them through Group C as winners.

A surprisingly narrow win against Australia preceded a nail-biting penalty shootout triumph against the Netherlands. Luckily for the Argentinians in the stadiums and back home, it was much more comfortable in the semi-final as Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez led their nation to a 3-0 win.

France, on the other hand, have gone through the gears in similar fashion to their 2018 campaign. They opened the World Cup in emphatic style with a 4-1 win against Australia before a battling performance against Denmark was won almost single-handedly by Kylian Mbappe.

With qualification to the knockouts secure, there was a hiccup against Tunisia in the final group game, but in the last-16, the holders cruised past Poland before facing England in the quarter-final.

Despite finding themselves under mounting pressure for large parts of that game, they showed their champion mentality and ran out 2-1 winners thanks to a Olivier Giroud’s winner — and Harry Kane’s missed penalty.

It was a similar situation for France in the semi-final against a spirited Morocco side. Deschamps’ defence was tested throughout the 90 minutes but they scored twice at vital times to get past the record-breaking north Africans.

Theo Hernandez opened the scoring inside just five minutes in the semi-final (Photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Messi vs Mbappe

Messi is chasing the perfect swansong to his international career.

At the age of 35, he has been excellent at this tournament for Argentina. He is leading the Golden Boot race, has the joint-most assists and is the favourite to take home the Golden Ball.

But all that will mean very little if he doesn’t return to Argentina with the trophy. Standing in his and his team-mates’ way is a team of reigning champions, including a 23-year-old Paris-Saint Germain colleague.

Mbappe has hammered home the belief that he is arguably the best player in the world. He has added another five goals to his World Cup tally and is set to obliterate every record that has been set at the tournament over the last 92 years.

He will also join an exclusive club of players to have won back-to-back World Cups if he is able to help his side over the line on Sunday. A shootout has emerged between him and Messi for the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball.

The latter may already be decided ahead of the final but a goal for the Frenchman, and none for his club team mate, would see him achieve every striker’s dream: winning a World Cup Golden Boot.

Prediction

Argentina to beat France.

Argentina to win: 45%. France to win: 27%. Draw: 28%.

To lift the trophy: Argentina: 60%, France: 40%.

All of our predictions for the 2022 World Cup are powered by Nielsen’s Gracenote, who have used a proprietary football ranking system to estimate the chances of different results for every possible match through extensive simulations, to assess the chances for each team to reach different stages of the tournament.

Wider reading

We’ve got a couple of brilliant columns for you. Firstly from Mauricio Pochettino on the responsibility of Messi’s team mates and secondly, Antonio Valencia on two decades without a World Cup for South America.

There is also an excellent tactical insight from Liam Tharme on the differences between the all-conquering France side of 2018 and this current side hoping to make more history.

Follow the latest Qatar World Cup news, analysis, tables, fixtures and more here.

(Top photo: Getty Images)

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