Lionel Messi got the perfect sendoff in his last dance at the greatest show on earth as Argentina brought an end to their 36-year World Cup trophy drought after overcoming the brave challenge of Kylian Mbappe's France in the penalty shootout in Sunday's grand finale at Lusail Iconic Stadium.
The Albiceleste, inspired by Emiliano Martinez, prevailed 4-2 in the tie-breaker after the score was locked at 3-3 following extra time, and 2-2 after the end of normal time.
Both Mbappe and Messi scored from their first spot-kicks respectively to stay in the balance.
Argentina's shootout hero in the quarters against the Netherlands, Martinez then denied Kingsley Coman brilliantly, diving to his right before Paulo Dybala's successful shot gave the Albiceleste 2-1 lead.
Falling to own up to the pressure, France's constant performer Aurelien Tchouameni failed to keep the ball on target, and successful conversions from Leandro Paredes and Randal Kolo Muani set the stage for Gonzalo Montiel, who conceded the last penalty at the end of extra time to give Mbappe the chance to equalize.
The Sevilla right-back salvaged redemption by sending Hugo Lloris the wrong way to spark wild celebrations in the Argentine dugout.
Earlier, a shell-shocked Argentina had come back from the tunnel for extra time and took the initial control to regain their domination, as they did in the quarter-final, and started getting comfortable.
France though were compact and attempted a couple of attacks in the final third to keep the momentum.
Substitute Lautaro Martinez was denied a couple of times by Dayot Upamecano just before the break in extra time as France were living dangerously.
Messi with his classic one-twos set up Lautaro on the edge of the box but a timely block by Upamecano from nowhere sent the ball to Montiel outside the box.
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His screamer was bravely headed away by Raphael Varane for a corner.
And then in the following minute, Lautaro got free on the left inside box but Upamecano tackled well to keep the score level.
With the momentum on their side, Argentina kept pressing and in the 108th minute Messi gave Lionel Scaloni's men the lead once again after Lautaro's shot was half-saved by Lloris and the rebound found Messi open in front of the net as he sent it over the line.
But it was not finished there.
France were awarded a penalty as Montiel blocked a shot from Mbappe with his arm at the edge of the box and the Paris Saint Germain man converted, sending Martinez the wrong way to complete his hat-trick and restore the parity.
Both the teams came close to scoring again as Lautaro put a header wide form close range while Martinez brought out a clinical save at the end to take the game to the penalty shootout.
To accommodate a fully-fit Angel di Maria, who just played eight minutes in the knockout stage against the Dutch, Scaloni discarded Paredes from the XI to revert to traditional 4-3-3 format.
Messi made record 26th appearance at the World Cup finals, surpassing German legend Lothar Matthaus.
Didier Deschamps got back his key players Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot, who both recovered from virus in time to replace Ibrahima Konate and Youssouf Fofana, as France deployed 4-2-3-1 formation, which was successful against England in the quarter-final.
As the ball got rolling, Argentina started the game brighter of the two sides and kept attacking with possession in the opponent's final third.
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Di Maria showed his strength in midfield after returning to the starting line-up.
In the fifth minute, Julian Alvarez backheel found Alexis Mac Allister on the left outside the box but the Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder shot straight to Lloris from 25 yards.
Three minutes later, Messi from the middle released a clever pass to Mac Allister down the left.
Mac Allister guided the ball to Di Maria who then laid it for Rodrigo De Paul but his shot from the edge of the D got deflected wide right, luckily for Lloris who was on the other side of the post.
France after getting completely dominated by the Albiceleste, were trying to win possession and regroup.
In the 13th minute, Mbappe on the left attempted a quick one-two with Rabiot but the return pass was too heavy and easily reached Martinez.
With the dominance, Argentina in the 21st minute got a penalty – their fifth in this World Cup - when Di Maria was fouled by Ousmane Dembele just inside the box after being beaten at the edge of the endline on the left.
The penalty looked soft but ugly in the replay and the Polish referee Szymon Marciniak didn't find enough reasons to change his decision after Video Assistant Referee check.
Messi sent Lloris the other way and rolled the ball into the bottom right to score his fourth penalty and sixth goal in total in the tournament and celebrated with a casual slide in front of silent French fans as the rest of the 88,996 crowd at the full capacity Lusail erupted in joy.
Di Maria then doubled the lead in the 36th minute from an emphatic counter attack which started from Messi through the middle.
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The No 10 found Alvarez on the right and he then guided the ball to Mac Allister in the wing.
Mac Allister in his very first touch sent a low across to Di Maria who was coming in from the opposite wing.
The Juventus man took a touch and a shot across Lloris and into the bottom right and was seen crying after his trademark celebration.
In the very last shot of the first half, Antoine Griezmann sent a free kick in from the deep right but couldn't find any Blue shirt at the far post and had to leave the field for the break 2-0 behind.
The men in sky blue and white came out strongly after the break and Les Bleus still looked clueless for some periods.
Even though France got some favorable positions in the final third, they failed to take advantage as Argentine defenders put their bodies on the line.
It was almost 3-0 at the hour mark when Messi, after some nice work by Di Maria, was well poised to shoot from close range.
Rabiot though intervened in the nick of time to get a toe on the ball and the shot got away slightly.
Against the run of play, suddenly France came back with all their powers after Nicolas Otamendi conceded a soft penalty and Mbappe in the 80th minute, having failed to make any impact in the game earlier, fired into the bottom left to reduce the lead, despite Martinez's right guess and finger tips on it.
And in the very next minute, the French No 10 scored the leveler in empathic fashion, this time volleying past Martinez on the left corner after Marcus Thuram's header found him on the left at the edge of the box.
The momentum completely shifted to Deshchamps' charges with support of their roaring fans and Mbappe then came close to scoring his hat-trick but his on-target shot took a deflection to go over the bar.
Messi in the dying moments got possession and fired a cracker from the edge of the penalty arc only to see it saved smartly by a flying Lloris as the game, level at 2-2, went to extra time.