France faced Argentina in the final of the FIFA World Cup 2022, which was played on Sunday night at the Lusail Iconic Stadium. The match between these two star-studded sides lived up to the billing and turned out to be one of the greatest games of all time. Both Argentina and France gave their all to win the game inside the first 90 minutes, but it didn’t happen. And then, in the additional 30 minutes, they fought hard again, but once again, there was very little to separate the two teams. And then, when the game went to penalties, it was the South American side that emerged victorious.
Even though Argentina won the final to secure their third FIFA World Cup title, one player who grabbed all the attention on Messi’s greatest night was his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe. The 23-year-old forward single-handedly kept France alive in the contest and scored a hat-trick in the decider to almost win the game for his team. But he failed to win his second straight World Cup trophy.
But despite that, he broke numerous records on the night of the final because of his superb show. Here’s a list of records:
2nd player in history to score a hat-trick in FIFA WC final: By scoring a hat-trick in the final of the FIFA World Cup 2022, Mbappe became only the second player in the tournament’s history to score three goals in the summit clash. He is the first one to do so in the last 56 years. Before him, only England legend Geoff Hurst, in the 1966 edition, scored a hat-trick in the decider. But unlike Mbappe, he won the title.
2nd player to score in two straight FIFA World Cup finals: Kylian Mbappe became only the second player in FIFA World Cup history to score goals in two consecutive FIFA World Cup finals. He joined Brazil legend Vava on the elite list. Vava scored in the finals of the 1958 and 1962 World Cups, both of which Brazil won, and Mbappe has matched that tally by complementing his one goal in the 2018 WC final with three this time.
Most goals in the FIFA World Cup final: With four goals to his name in two World Cup finals, Mbappe has broken Brazil’s Vava and Pele, England’s Geoff Hurst, and France’s Zinedine Zidane’s tally of three goals each to take the No. 1 position.
Golden Boot winner: Mbappe scored a total of eight goals in seven matches played in this year’s World Cup. He scored a brace against Denmark and Poland before netting a hat-trick in the summit clash. Mbappe’s goal tally is the highest by any player in this World Cup, and he has directly contributed to 10 goals, as apart from his eight goals, he has provided two assists.
