Khalid Hossain

They drift through the tournament with the emotional weather of a commuter stranded at Farmgate in the rain, watching every bus except theirs crawl past.

It appears the coaches of the losing semifinalists were guilty of underestimating their oppositions’ strengths while being overconfident of what had worked for them in the tournament.

The defining narrative of this match lies in the sheer warfare on the pitch.

A second star has never been so within touching distance for La Furia Roja.

For Messi and his squad, the lesson of 1990 is clear: when you are the champions, the world presents a treacherous road. Sometimes, they block the road entirely.

Suffering remains an unavoidable, deeply embedded experience for this team; a tax Argentina always seems destined to pay before they can taste glory, or otherwise. The question is whether Scaloni can survive the next wave of it by standing still.

Ultimately, this high-stakes encounter near Hollywood lights faithfully mirrored the storied bracket of 1994, leaving the World Cup poised for further high-drama fixtures.

Mbappe is a competitive beast that simply refuses to be contained, and at this point the World Cup is fast becoming entirely synonymous with the French superstar.