{"id":811308,"date":"2026-07-20T01:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T01:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811308\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T01:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T01:59:13","slug":"fifa-world-cup-final-2026-lionel-messi-sobs-as-spain-beat-argentina-after-red-card-drama-extra-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811308\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA World Cup final 2026: Lionel Messi sobs as Spain beat Argentina after red card drama, extra time"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the ultimate Spanish<\/a> inquisition.<\/p>\n

For 105 minutes La Roja knocked the ball around, enjoying a staggering 68 per cent of possession.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi reacts after losing to Spain.\u00a0AP Photo\/Pamela Smith<\/p>\n

And for 105 minutes Argentina<\/a> were like stubborn cockroaches, a band of brothers, refusing to die. <\/p>\n

Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s red card – in the final minute of regular time – wore Lionel Messi\u2019s<\/a> men down further.<\/p>\n

Twenty shots to three: unheard of for a World Cup final<\/a> as Emiliano Mart\u00ednez reprised his goalkeeping heroics from 2022.<\/p>\n

Conspiracy theorists were licking their lips and reaching for their phones when Nico Williams\u2019 goal was disallowed.<\/p>\n

Was Messi really going to do it again at the age of 39? <\/p>\n

But fresh legs and law of averages proved telling.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 head proved telling, as he cleverly directed a cross into the orbit of his fellow substitute Ferran Torres.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old from Barcelona<\/a> struck sweetly and Martinez was human after all.<\/p>\n

It was not a classic final and some petulant Argentina players let themselves down by throwing their toys after the fulltime whistle.<\/p>\n

England<\/a> legend Alan Shearer described the scenes as \u201cterrible,\u201d singling out Leandro Paredes for criticism.<\/p>\n

The substitute midfielder was given a post-match red card.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paredes received a post-match red card for this.\u00a0AP Photo\/Julio Cortez<\/p>\n

\u201cParedes threw two or three haymakers into someone\u2019s face. He went for them. There is no place or space for that,\u201d Shearer told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how much it means to them, and we know how much it hurts to lose, but there is a way to lose. Too many times we have seen that from Argentina. The reaction after the final whistle is terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surgical Spain, 1-0 winners<\/a>, deserved their moment in the dying New Jersey sun.<\/p>\n

Such is the nation\u2019s influence on modern football, it now seems remarkable that it took until 2010 to get a star on their red shirts.<\/p>\n

Kings of Europe and now champions of the world as the men joined the women\u2019s heroes from 2023 in Australia.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve won everything, everything,\u201d Spain manager Luis de la Fuente said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s wonderful, with a generation of footballers, I\u2019ll say it again and again, who are an example for Spanish sport, for Spanish youth, for Spain. Together we are stronger, let there be no doubt about that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rodri of Spain lifts the World Cup trophy.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I think the game should have been decided much earlier. Dibu\u2019s (Martinez\u2019s) great saves prevented us from winning the game sooner. We could have taken a more comfortable lead. But this is a world championship final, and even with 10 men, you have to suffer at the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut since we like to suffer, we\u2019ve shown once again that we\u2019re ready for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messi cried as fans chanted his name before Donald Trump<\/a> hung winner\u2019s medals – \u2018beautiful, shiny, gold!\u2019 – over the necks of Spanish players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that in the end, the goal belonged to 47 million people, not to me or the 26 players here,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that today destiny was written, it was meant for us to win, far from our fans, but we tried to make them feel as close as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll finals are difficult, and when you have Messi on the opposing team, you always get nervous. But ultimately, we\u2019ve always depended on ourselves, on playing our style of football, and I think we demonstrated that once again today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messi has not officially retired from international football, but he has hinted that this World Cup would be his swansong in the famous Argentina shirt.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Alex Baena helps Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi get back on his feet.\u00a0AP Photo\/Ashley Landis<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s greatest player of all-time remains under contract with Inter Miami until the end of 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel sad. But I am aware that we played our hearts out,\u201d Messi said.<\/p>\n

Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is sadness, but also the knowledge that we gave it our all,\u201d Scaloni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could say a lot about how we got here, but it\u2019s not worth it. I am eternally grateful to these guys; they competed right to the end. The other team was better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spain midfielder Rodri won the Golden Ball prize as the tournament\u2019s best player, while France captain Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> won Golden Boot with 10 goals – two more than Messi after his double against England in the wild bronze medal match.<\/a><\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Unai Simon won the Golden Glove award as the World Cup\u2019s<\/a> best goalkeeper – conceding just once in eight games – and teenaged teammate Pau Cubars\u00ed was judged the best young player.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Spain captain Rodri celebrates winning the World Cup.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI think now I\u2019m in a cloud,\u201d Spain captain Rodri said.<\/p>\n

The Manchester City midfielder was able to get back to his best after returning from knee surgery last year.<\/p>\n

Rodri had no goals or assists in the tournament, but was critical to Spain\u2019s possession-heavy style of play.<\/p>\n

He completed more passes than anyone (753) with 94 per cent accuracy. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s been a very tough time. I just want the new generation to see my example as an opportunity to that if you go down, you can rise again,\u201d Rodri said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my philosophy my entire life. Of course, sometimes things go well, things go wrong. But always the positive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was the ultimate Spanish inquisition. For 105 minutes La Roja knocked the ball around, enjoying a staggering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-811308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}