Lionel Messi’s last dance will continue until the music stops in Qatar on Sunday as he now stands just 90 minutes away from the ultimate accolade of having a World Cup forever attached to his name.

Just like Diego Maradona stamped himself indelibly on Argentina’s 1986 win in Mexico and Brazil striker Ronaldo wrote a redemption story in Yokohama in their 2002 triumph, this will be known as Messi’s World Cup if he inspires victory against either France or Morocco in the final.

Argentina’s campaign in Qatar opened with the ignominy of what is still this World Cup’s biggest shock, when they lost to Saudi Arabia.

But the manner in which the master Messi and his apprentice Julian Alvarez swept aside Croatia in their 3-0 semi-final win delivered an ominous warning that they are reaching the sort of perfect crescendo their fans were still hitting in Lusail Stadium long after the final whistle.

So it is all back to the space-age Lusail on Sunday to see if Argentina can win a third World Cup in their sixth final and whether the player some label the greatest the game has ever seen can finally get his hands on the prize that has remained tantalisingly out of his reach.

Source: BBC