Argentina today became the second team to be crowned soccer world champion after starting the final with a defeat, repeating the path of Spain in the 2010 edition.
With a 4-2 victory against France, on penalties, after 3-3 in 120 minutes, the South American team reached the sixth consecutive ‘final’, after the 2-1 defeat against Saudi Arabia, on the first tour from Group C.
After that unexpected defeat, which later prevented Argentina from equaling the world record of 37 consecutive games without losing to Italy, the ‘Albicelestes’ faced the last two days of the group stage knowing that a defeat meant a premature goodbye to Qatar.
The second match was with Mexico and Argentina won 2-0, the same result they achieved in the third round, against Poland, by Robert Lewandowski, despite the fact that, even at 0-0, Lionel Messi had wasted a penalty.
Eliminating, Argentina began by beating Australia (2-1), in the round of 16, to then beat the Netherlands on penalties (4-3, after 2-2 in 120 minutes), in the quarterfinals, and Croatia. (3-0), in the semifinals.
Today, in the final in Lusail, Lionel Scaloni’s eleven completed their recovery by beating France on penalties (4-2), in a match in which they won 2-0 and 3-1, already in extra time .
In the history of the World Cups, only one team had reached the title after starting losing, namely Spain, which in 2010, and as title European champions, started with a 1-0 defeat against Switzerland, in a Group H match.
The Spaniards responded, however, in the best way and, with wins against Honduras (2-0) and Chile (2-1), they still ended up winning the group, like Argentina in 2020.
In the ‘mata-mata’, Vicente del Bosque’s team solved everything with 1-0 wins against Portugal (round of 16), Paraguay (quarter-finals), Germany (semi-finals) and the Netherlands (final), in the last case after the extension.
In addition to Spain, in 2010, and Argentina, in 2020, only three other teams finished champions with a defeat on the way, the FRG, in 1954 and 1974, and the Argentines, in 1974.
In 1954, Germany thrashed Hungary 8-3, on the second day of the group stage, to then end the competition with a 3-2 win against the Magyars, in a final in which Puskás, Kocsis or Czibor prevailed. for 2-0. .
Twenty years later, Germany, playing at home, won again with a defeat in the middle, this one very unexpected, suffered on the third day of the group stage, against the GDR (0-1), the neighbor on the other side of the Wall
In the next edition, in 1978, hosts Argentina also suffered a setback on the way to their first title, losing to Italy 1-0, also on matchday three of the first group stage.
Source: TSF
