How Lamine Yamal outshone Lionel Messi in World Cup final

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Evening Standard

19 July 2026

The

World Cup

2026 final was billed as Messi vs Yamal thanks to an extraordinary narrative

Ferran Torres’s strike in the second half of extra time won

Spain

the 2026

Spain’s 1-0 victory over Argentina meant 39-year-old Lionel Messi’s World Cup campaign ended in heartbreak

in New Jersey in a final where ten-man

Argentina

barely had the ball.

Enzo Fernandez was sent off in stoppage time of normal time for a second bookable offence

, and

dominated extra time.

The match had been billed as Messi versus Barcelona’s child prodigy

Lamine Yamal

Standard Sport

here assesses how each star played...

An Argentina-Spain final produced an extraordinary narrative, given Messi and Yamal had first met in 2007,

when Yamal’s parents had entered him into a newspaper competition and he had been photographed as a baby being bathed with a 20-year-old Messi for a UNICEF charity photoshoot

Yamal was desperate at the final at the MetLife Stadium to get the better of his idol and inspire

to their second crown.

It was the 19-year-old right winger who had the game’s first chance, exchanging a nice one-two with Dani Olmo but dragging his near-post shot and allowing Emi Martinez to save.

Yamal was put through again soon after but could not quite latch on.

He was subjected to pretty physical treatment by Argentina’s defenders throughout, but they dealt with him relatively well.

A free-kick into the wall in the second half was disappointing yet as

grew late on in normal time, so did his influence.

A piece of superb skill saw him turn past Nicolas Tagliafico and shortly after his nimble feet allowed him to slip between Julian Alvarez and Alexis Mac Allister.

It was not to be Yamal himself who scored the decisive goal, but he got the better of Messi in New Jersey, falling to his knees at the sound of the final whistle.

It was Messi himself, the reigning world champion and one of the very top stars of this

, who kicked the game off.

That proved his only touch of the ball in the opening 15 minutes.

Argentina went missing for large parts of the match, and in truth the same was true of Messi.

Perhaps his greatest chance to have a telling impact on the game fell too early, in the first few minutes, when he was slipped through on goal but couldn’t quite catch up with the ball in order to round Unai Simon before the goalkeeper instead got there first and hacked clear.

It was not to be for

Lionel Messi

in the

2026 final

AFP/Getty

Rodri was imperious in midfield for long periods and yet it was Messi who was the first player to get a run on the Manchester City midfielder, carrying the ball through midfield and inviting a check foul from the Spaniard.

And in stoppage time of the first half of extra time, there was an incredible pirouette from the

Inter Miami

man, the ball taped to his foot, a full 360 and then a crafty through-ball sprayed out wide.

This was, though, a rare glimpse of what we have seen from Messi at this

thwarted

and the No10 as well,

the golden boot heading Kylian Mbappe’s way instead

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