It was a goal fest when France faced Argentina at the Kazan Arena in the first knockout match of The FIFA World Cup 2018. Argentina started off with 5 players in their final line up already yellow carded from their previous matches. The game was an aggressive one with France earning a Penalty at 11’ which Griezmann took opening France’s score 1-0. They once again earned a free kick at 19’ but the shot went high. At 41’ Di Maria scored equalising the score and evening the playing field. It was an interesting first half with both the teams scoring a goal each with a half-time score of 1-1.
In the second half, Mercado scored a goal of a brilliant pass from Messi at 48’ tilting the balance towards Argentina 1-2. Ten minutes later it was France’s turn to equalise as Pavard scored his first goal for France from out of the box at 57’ and the score was 2-2. After some rough tackles that earned yellow cards for Argentina, the game swayed in France’s favour as Mbappe scored at 64’ bringing the score to 3-2. At 68’ Mbappe struck again putting France ahead with a 2 goal lead of 4-2. Argentina made their share of attempts at goal when Messi tried to score but was unable to convert it. Finally at 90’+3’ Kun Aguero scored a last minute goal for Argentina making it 4-3. The game resumed, only to end 60 seconds later with France winning the match 4-3 to proceed to the quarter-finals.
We finally got to see Argentina perform as a team but it was unfortunate that they found their form in what happened to be their last match of the tournament. France on the other hand showed that they deserve to be in the quarterfinals with their game today. I hope that the upcoming matches are as entertaining as this one.
The Writers Room 