World Cup finals ranked: France thriller second only to Messi’s crowning moment

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19 July 2026

The last

World Cup

showpiece held in the United States was a tough watch while

Argentina

have thrilled and infuriated in their last two finals…

Before

Argentina face Spain in New Jersey

on Sunday evening, we’ve ranked the best finals in memory, which takes us back as far as Italia ’90.

Starting with the least enthralling…

It was hoped this might be a repeat of the 1970 classic final between these two nations but

Brazil

and

Italy

both looked knackered upon reaching the Rose Bowl showpiece, with chances at a premium through 90 minutes.

The closest either side came to scoring in regulation time was a Mauro Silva shot from distance fumbled by Gianluca Pagliuca but the post rescued the

goalkeeper, for which he kissed the upright.

Extra-time saw the game open up more, with

on top and Romario missing a sitter from point-blank range to make this the only goalless final.

Italy missed three kicks in the shoot-out; Daniele Massaro’s was saved while Franco Baresi and Roberto Baggio both skied theirs to hand

their fourth star and the first since they beat

24 years earlier.

Spain won their first

by in a Johannesburg final best remembered for 14 yellow cards and one red card for John Heitinga.

Howard Webb came under fire but the English ref could hardly let such a niggly game flow. Nigel De Jong ought to have been red carded in the first half, but Webb was not overly fussy while

Netherlands

sought to disrupt Spain’s flow.

They succeeded for the most part until Cesc Fabregas set up Andres Iniesta for the winner four minutes from the end of extra-time.

Spain

deserved the win but the final is one best forgotten.

The second successive showpiece to be settled by a single goal in the second period of extra-time went Germany’s way after

Lionel Messi

was kept quiet for much of his first

final.

Mario Gotze made the difference at the Maracana, chesting down Andre Schurrle’s pass before beating Sergio Romero.

Argentina trailed for only seven minutes in the whole tournament but they failed to produce a shot on target in a

game for the first time since they lost to the same opponent by the same score in 1990.

With four players suspended, including Claudio Caniggia,

attempted to sh*thouse their way to defending the title won four years previously against the same opposition.

It worked so far as keeping an adventurous West

Germany

out for 85 minutes but

couldn’t muster a single shot on target in Rome, with Diego Maradona shackled by Guido Buchwald and, usually, three of his closest team-mates. When Andreas Brehme scored from the spot late on, the holders failed to muster a reply other than renewed aggression.

Argentina also became the first nation to have a player sent off in a final when Pedro Monzon scythed down Jurgen Klinsmann on 65 minutes. They were then down to nine men, with Gustavo Dezotti following Monzon into the showers with three minutes remaining.

After Ronaldo’s woe in ’98 (more on that shortly) and career-threatening injuries in between, the

striker belatedly had his crowning moment, scoring twice in Yokohama.

Kleberson hit the bar in the first half while Oliver Neuville struck the post after the break with a 30-yard free-kick off a 40-yard run-up.

Germany had more possession, more shots and many more corners but Ronaldo made the difference. His first goal, midway through the second half, came after he robbed Dietmar Hamann to feed Rivaldo, whose shot was spilled by Oliver Kahn into Ronaldo’s path.

Twelve minutes later, Rivaldo’s dummy gave Ronaldo a yard which he used to beat Kahn again with a clinical finish from the edge of the box. Khan claimed the Golden Ball while Ronaldo won his first

– Brazil’s fifth and last to date – and the Golden Boot.

This one is remembered almost as much for the pre-match drama as the game itself, with Ronaldo initially missing from the

team sheet.

It later emerged that R9 had suffered a convulsive fit on the afternoon of the game, leaving him unconscious for ‘three or four minutes”. He was taken to hospital and left out of Brazil’s XI, but when tests gave him the all clear, Ronaldo travelled directly to the Stade de

France

and the team sheet hurriedly changed.

The whole farrago, not surprisingly, seemed to unsettle

. They struggled to find their rhythm and defending set-pieces was beyond them. Zinedine Zidane scored two headers off corners from either side to give

a lead they rarely looked like losing.

Ronaldo had one clear sight of goal but his fierce shot was saved and held by Fabien Barthez. Marcel Desailly was dismissed for two yellow cards but

finished with a flourish with an added time goal from Emmanuel Petit to claim their first

, becoming the seventh of eight nations so far to win it.

When, in his final game before retirement, Zidane panenka’d Gianluigi Buffon (the cojones to do that to the great man in a

final…) in the seventh minute, the ball kissing the bar on its way in, this looked set to be another Zidane Final. Which it was, but not for the reasons anyone expected.

Marco Materazzi headed

level in Berlin shortly after Zidane’s penalty, and an absorbing final, one more open than many expected, played out through 90 minutes and extra-time.

France got on top in extra-time until Zidane stuck his nut on Materazzi. Why? The

defender muttered something about Zizou’s sister when sarcastically offered his jersey.

France held on with 10 men for penalties, only for David Trezeguet to miss, handing

their fourth star.

Amid thunder in Moscow,

triumphed in a thriller that equalled the previous highest-scoring final in 1958, despite

Croatia

being the better side for the first hour.

Croatia’s luck deserted them, though, with a dubious free-kick leading to an own-goal from Mario Mandzukic before Ivan Perisic was harshly penalised for handball, either side of Perisic’s equaliser.

Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann appeared to make the game safe for

with goals within six minutes of one another around the hour mark, but

kept battling and threatened a comeback with Mandzukic capitalised on Hugo Lloris’s error.

France’s quality combined with their good fortune, however, got them over the line, four years before their next six-goal-thriller final…

Messi’s defining moment in spite of Kylian Mbappe scoring only the second hat-trick ever bagged in a

final…

The

captain needed a

in Qatar to cement his GOAT legacy with Maradona’s 1986 triumph still hanging over him, but Messi looked on course to emulate his idol when his penalty and Angel Di Maria’s fine finish established a two-goal lead before half-time that lasted until 80 minutes.

Then Mbappe replied with a penalty of his own before immediately levelling to force extra-time. Messi and Mbappe traded goals again, before Randal Kolo Muani went clean through in the 120th minute, only for Emi Martinez to make the biggest save of his career. Without that, this would have been the Mbappe final and Messi would still be searching for his first

Martinez came up big again in the shoot out too, saving from Kingsley Coman before Aurelien Tchouameni shot wide. Messi was one of four scorers for

before lifting the

as player of the match despite Mbappe’s heroics.

🗣️ Best World Cup goalscorer ever, Mbappé on his duel with Messi

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