World Cup final: Spain 1 (Torres 107) Argentina 0 – Report
Torres goal.
Spain 1-0 Argentina. Goodnight and good luck.
Spain win the World Cup. A few Argentinians lose it at full-time. Punches thrown.
Spain 1-0 Argentina. The second star will be stitched into the Spanish shirt. Messi losses in his third World Cup final appearance. Ferrán Torres the match winner. The Argentinians don’t take defeat well. Some punches thrown on the pitch.
124 minutes: Spain 1-0 Argentina. 10-man Argentina have too many defenders on the pitch to get clean balls to Messi in space. Spain are on the cusp of winning a second World Cup.
121 minutes: A low curving Messi corner sits up for Simeone but he skies the ball into the gigantic MetLife stand.
FIVE MINUTES OF INJURY TIME. That can’t be right.
120th minutes: Messi takes a quick free-kick, slides the ball down the right for Simone but a gang og Spanish legs put it behind for a corner.
119 minutes: Spain 1-0 Argentina. Spain are eating up the seconds.
115 minutes: Time for a miracle. Messi takes a short corner and attempts the Ronaldinho effort that beat David Seaman in 2002. The ball lands on the roof of the Spanish net. Tick tock.
114 minutes: Spain 1-0 Argentina. Torres scores a second goal but it is ruled out for offside. The statistics of this match tell no lies. Spain have taken 20 shots (12 on target). Argentina? Zero shots. Messi looks like an old man stumbling home after a few jars.
GOAL: Lovely stuff from the best team in the world. Porro lofted a cross to the back post where Nico Williams nodded it back for Torres to finish. Argentina, finally, over run.
105 minutes: Ferrán Torres thunderbolts the game’s opening goal 40 seconds into the second-half of extra-time.
105 minutes: All sorts of messing going on. Argentina playing for penalties. Spain playing to a standstill. #
100 minutes: The XG is Spain 1.72 - 0.0 Argentina.
96 minutes: Nico Williams thought he just won Spain’s second World Cup but Merino ever so slightly fouled Otamendi in the build up. VAR confirms as much.
Full-time: Spain 0-0 Argentina. The European champions had 10 shots on target but as Wayne Rooney notes on BBC: “Nine were easy to save, the tenth wasn’t.”
96 minutes: More has happened in injury-time than the entire game. Paredes is on the edge of a second yellow card after fouling Ferrán Torres. Yamal steps up and curls a beauty that Emi Martinez pushes for a corner. Action, finally.
92 minutes: Enzo Fernandez sent off. Second yellow card. The first was for dissent, the second for a reckless challenge on Cubarsi. Seconds earlier, Messi briefly came to life, lost the ball and down the other end Nico Williams slammed a shot at Emi Martinez. The unmarked Lamine Yamal flung his hands in the air.
90 minutes: Four minutes of added time coming up. Camera flicks to Spanish World Cup winners in the stand, including Xavi and Iniesta. The best of the best.
85 minutes: Nothing to report. Maybe it’s a calculated move by FIFA. Trump, Shakira and Madonna are long gone by now. ‘Disciplined Argentinian resistance kills American interest in soccer.’
Spain 11-0 Argentina. That would be the score if shots were goals. Eight on target. One way traffic but all Messi - yes, he is out there, walking about - needs one clean look.
66 minutes: Yamal gets to the end line and cuts a cross onto the head of Ferran Torres. Well held, Emi Martinez. End of the third quarter.
76 minutes: MetLife attendance is 80,663. “Full House.” Mikel Merino and Nico Williams replace Olmo and Baena – this is when Spain should move through the gears and spare us 30 minutes of extra-time.
63 minutes: Olmo hits a tricky shot from distance that Emi Martinez can only bat for a corner. Argentina survives two corners.
60 minutes: Paredes fouls Porro in range of a Lamine Yamal special. Shot goes straight into the Argentina wall. Pedri and Ferran Torres enter the fray for Spain.
56 minutes: Spain threaten to cut Argentina open. Ruiz, Olmo, Oyarzabal beginning to connect with each other. Montiel makes a key interception in the box.
52 minutes: Flash point, finally. Paredes booked for nudging Rodri in the back. The Spanish captain collapsed like he’d been struck by a rock. Nothing in it.
50 minutes: Shades of the 1990 final between Germany and Argentina. Argentina are pushing the tempo so it is Spain’s turn to kick lumps out of them.
Updated teams:
Spain: Simon; Porro, Cubaris, Laporte, Cucurella; Rodri, Ruiz; Yamal, Olmo, Baena; Oyarzabal.
Argentina: E Martinez; Montiel, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico; Paredes; De Paul, Enzo, Mac Allister; Messi, Alvarez.
Second-half: Paredes replaces Nico González as Argentina try to plug holes in midfield. Something has got to give.
Half-time show: Poor performance from Justin Bieber. Too slow, off the pace. Shakira enters the arena. Better.
Still half-time: Sluggish opening 45 minutes was far more entertaining than a confused offering from Madonna-Bieber-Shakira-Coldplay. Even the Czechs made a more memorable impact at this World Cup.
HT show: Madonna is rolling back the years here. Hilariously, she is joined on the pitch by the two Ronnies - Ronaldo and Ronaldinho - in baggy tracksuits. This is not a joke.
Half-time: Argentina are waiting in the long grass, right? They had zero corners, zero attempts at goal and zero touches in the Spanish box.
Half-time: Spain 0-0 Argentina. Poor game. Just three Spanish shots which is worst return in a final since 1966 (when it last came home).
42 mins: As Cucurella flashes another shot across the Argentina goal, Lisandro Martínez pulls up injured and needs to be replaced by Nicolas Otamendi. This is cagey stuff.
38 mins: Spain fire off a second shot on target. Olmo’s dummy offers Oyarzabal a shot from outside the box but Emi Martinez sees it into his bread basket.
35 mins: Here’s what you missed (if you were outdoors). The MetLife pitch is bumpy. Kick-off was delayed by six minutes (Trump). Both Messi and Yamal had early looks at goal that came to nothing. It’s developing into a poor game.
32 mins: Smart teams. Everyone seems to be keeping their powder dry in the searing conditions. It will break open at some stage...
27 mins: End of the first quarter in the world series of soccer: Just the one shot on goal from Yamal. Spain have 62% possession. It’s hot and sticky in Meadowlands.
14 mins: Good game on a poor pitch (MetLife had one job).Alexis Mac Allister lucky to avoid a yellow card for swiping the legs of Dani Olmo.
6 mins: Messi peels away from Laporte but Unai Simón rushes out of the Spanish goal to recue the situation. Chances at either end.
4 mins: Lamine Yamal - so dangerous off the right - almost opens the scoring but Emi Martínez matches two jabs on the Argentine goal.
Kick-off 8.06pm.
If anyone is tuning in for an 8pm kick-off, sorry, FIFA decided Robbie Williams and Secret Service security checks were more important. Still, New Jersey is blue and white. Electric atmosphere.
While football icon Tom Cruise is selling his latest flick, here’s the teams.
Spain: Simon; Porro, Cubaris, Laporte, Cucurella; Rodri, Ruiz; Yamal, Olmo, Baena; Oyarzabal.
Argentina: E Martinez; Molina, Romero, L Martinez, Tagliafico; Enzo; De Paul, Mac Allister, Gonzalez; Messi, Alvarez.
This is tight. 7 minutes to kick-off and Robbie Williams is parading around in a tinsel-blue tracksuit.
The Argentinians are the best fans I’ve experienced on my travels (honourable mentions for Brazilians and Moroccans). Heating up around New Jersey for a 3pm kick-off (8pm Ireland).
BBC showing a list of Messi achievements at World Cups: he is second on 21 goals behind Mbappé (after two strikes last night v England) but 1st on assists, chances created, shots, shots on target, expected goals (19.6), expected assists, passes played into box, successful crosses, ball carry distance and dribbles completed.
Ken Early: “And so to win this ultimate victory, Messi must overcome what amounts to the living ghost of his old Barcelona team, complete with his own reincarnation and heir.”
Reports of delays at MetLife as stadium employees and volunteers are forced to queue for hours. Never mind the ticket holders who are facing technical glitches.
Teams are in...
Spain unchanged:
Simon; Porro, Cubaris, Laporte, Cucurella; Rodri, Ruiz; Yamal, Olmo, Baena; Oyarzabal.
Argentina replace Giuliano Simeone and Leandro Paredes with Rodrigo De Paul and Nico Gonzalez:
Martinez; Molina, Romero, Lisandro Martinez, Tagliafico; Enzo; De Paul, Mac Allister, Gonzalez; Messi, Alvarez.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia)
Oh no. Rob Harris, reporting live from the MetLife Stadium for Sky News, is suggesting that the 8pm kick-off could be delayed.
Argentina - route to the final:
Group J Algeria 3-0, Austria 2-0, Jordan 3-1.
Last 32 Cape Verde 3-2 (AET).
Last 16 Egypt 3-2.
Quarter-final Switzerland 3-1 (AET).
Semi-final England 2-1.
Spain - route to the final:
Group H Cape Verde 0-0, Saudi Arabia 4-0, Uruguay 1-0.
Last 32 Austria 3-0.
Last 16 Portugal 1-0.
Quarter-final Belgium 2-1.
Semi-final France 2-0.
Golden Boot race: After Kylian Mbappé’s brace against England in last night’s third-place play-off brought the France captain’s World Cup tally to 10 goals, Lionel Messi needs a hat-trick against Spain to win the golden boot.
The single-tournament record belongs to French striker Just Fontaine who scored 13 at Sweden ‘58 (Messi is unlikely to score five goals tonight).
The Irish Times view on the World Cup: “Despite the crass commercialisation, and political meddling, the finals retain the sense of magic that makes football the world’s most popular sport.”
“If Argentina has carried the shade of Diego Maradona on its quixotic adventure through the United States this summer, then the elegant silhouette of Johan Cruyff lingers over Sunday’s World Cup final,” read Keith Duggan’s in an interesting piece on first World Cup final between Spain and Argentina even has a Thomas Tuchel cameo.
Just other two hour before kick-off, there is still time to hear Ken Early in conversation with Paul Howard on the America 2026 podcast.
