Dominant La Roja Dethrone Argentina: Spain vs Argentina World Cup Final Recap
The World Cup 2026 finally reached its 39th and last day with a highly-anticipated game at hand. In the World Cup Final, Spain and Argentina battle to take the dream golden trophy home.
The irresistible force and the immoveable object, the top scoring team of the tournament versus the least conceding one, a battle of high quality awaits at New York New Jersey Stadium. Despite being top teams of international football and always having eyes on the latter stages, these two teams have only met once in the World stage in 1966. They were scheduled to meet once again earlier this season in Finalissima, but due to the conflicts in the Middle East and further disagreements the match was cancelled. However now, they go up against each other for the most treasured item of the sport.The reigning European Champions have shown an impressive defensive work in this tournament so far, keeping 6 clean sheets out of 7 games, including the one against the elite attackers of France in the Semi-Finals. While De La Fuente’s men are on the verge of extending their newly-broken defensive record to 7 games, Spain is also 90 minutes away from possibly holding both the European and World Championships for the first time since 2010. Their biggest strength is their well-organised, almost faultless teamwork, which is natural considering the fact that they’ve been working under Luis De La Fuente since their youth days in the Spanish National Team, and now they’ll be playing again together in the World Cup Final. Mikel Oyarzabal has been the top scorer of Spain so far with 5 goals and combined with Lamine Yamal, they’re La Roja’s biggest goal threats in this crucial game. The defence of Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte and Cucurella let only 1 goal slip until this moment and they’ll be hoping to keep it that way against Argentina.
However, the reigning World Champions are determined not to let their opposition get away with another clean sheet, just like all the teams they faced against on their way back to consecutive finals. Scaloni’s team hasn’t been the best team on defensive terms, but what they do best is to score more than their opponents under the leadership of Lionel Messi. He led his team to the Final with 8 goals and 4 assists so far and he’ll be in search of more in his third and last World Cup final appearance to end his journey on a high. On the verge of becoming only the second team to win consecutive World Cups after their South American rivals Brazil, a tough opponent is waiting.
There are no injured or suspended players coming to this match, but some interesting stories that just take the game to a whole another level. Lionel Scaloni used to be De La Fuente’s student on his way to obtain his coaching license and now the apprentice must beat his master to reach immortality once again. And Yamal, the kid in that viral photo, who was washed in Messi’s hands all those years ago, is now old enough to share the World stage and play against him. When the stars align, football becomes something more than just a sport.
So, without further ado, let’s have a look at the last starting elevens of the 2026 World Cup:
Spain XI: Simón - Porro - Cubarsí - Laporte - Cucurella - Rodri - Olmo - Ruiz - Yamal - Baena - Oyarzabal
Argentina XI: E. Martínez - Montiel - Romero - Li. Martínez - Tagliafico - De Paul - Fernández - Mac Allister - González - Messi - Álvarez
First Half
The first threat of the Final comes from Spain after 5 minutes. Also with the help of some luck, Yamal’s pass reflects from defence to Dani Olmo, who plays a quick one-two with him, but Yamal’s last shot ends up in Emiliano Martínez’s hands, also with help by Lisandro Martínez. Right after this miss, Argentina attempts to answer with a through ball to Messi’s runway, but Simón doesn’t give him the chance with a well-timed sweep. Until the dying stages of the first half, teams don’t take much shooting action and Spain shows dominance by keeping the ball possession. In the 39th minute, La Roja’s quick-passing play puts Oyarzabal into a shooting position from the edge of the Argentine box, but once again Martínez successfully holds on to the ball. A few minutes later, after Cucurella’s distanced near miss, Argentina is forced to take off centre-back Lisandro Martínez due to injury and sub Otamendi in, before the halftime whistle comes with a 0-0 scoreline.
Second Half
Spain continues in the second half where they left in the first one. In the early minutes, Tagliafico’s passing error led to Alex Baena’s shot, which was once again denied by the Argentinian gloves. From the 60th minute on, La Roja’s attacks became even more intense. Emiliano Martínez first struggles to parry Dani Olmo’s ranged attempt to corner and then saves fresh-sub Torres’ header with ease. The Argentine keeps the goal locked against Cubarsí’s strong long-range shot and Laporte’s header as well, but the plot twist hits La Albiceleste right before the game ends. During another clearance in 90+3rd minute, after Martínez’s save against Nico Williams, Enzo Fernández, who is already on a yellow, recklessly fouls Pau Cubarsí in the middle of the pitch and gets sent off. With their opponents being a man down, La Roja gets one more chance to score from a freekick, before the full-time whistle is blown. However, Emiliano Martínez is once again the stretching saviour of La Albiceleste. So, the scoreline doesn’t change after 90 minutes and the game goes to extra time.
Extra Time
The already struggling Argentina without a single shot registered on the opposition goal, has to spend the last half an hour with 10-men and the challenge arises from the first kicks of extra time. Three minutes into the 30-minute extension, Pedri chips the ball towards a sneaky Nico Williams, whose weak head tap isn’t enough to put the ball past Martínez, the best player of Argentina so far. La Roja finally breaks through the Aston Villa goalkeeper in the 96th minute, but they can’t do it successfully. Nico Williams manages to put the ball into Argentina’s net, but the referee blows the whistle seconds ago for a foul by Mikel Merino, who steps on Otamendi’s foot, while making a turn with the ball. The Arsenal midfielder sends a header just wide as well, before the first half of the extra time ends, but with the start of its second half, Spain finally breaks the dreadlock. Nico Williams turns Porro’s cross into a header pass to an unmarked Ferran Torres, strikes the ball into top bins to put La Roja into the lead in the 106th minute. Seven minutes later, the Barcelona attacker beats Martínez for the second time, but the goal is disallowed due to a very close offside call. With the diminishing minutes, Argentina are in need to take a shot, let alone find the equaliser. First Messi’s long-range attempt is blocked by Merino, then Cubarsí takes a huge risk to prevent Senesi from reaching Simeone’s low cross, almost scoring an own goal. And last, Messi’s corner in the added time skips towards Simeone, who shoots it over the bar and exhausts La Albiceleste’s late hopes. After 120 minutes of thrilling football, the final whistle is blown and Spain defeats Argentina 1-0.
With this victory, Spain are now the two-times champions of the World and also the holder of some new records. La Roja extended their defensive record to 7 clean sheets in a single World Cup, broke the record for the longest streak of unbeaten international games with 38 and also became the first country to hold both women’s and men’s world championships at the same time. Ferran Torres claims the last Superior Player of the Match Award by scoring the winning goal and the following Spanish players also left the final with extra awards other than the golden cup:Rodri - Golden Ball(Player of the Tournament)
Unai Simon - Golden Glove(Goalkeeper of the Tournament)
Pau Cubarsí - Young Player of the Tournament
Spain’s dominance in ball possession, hard work to keep it and close to perfection defensive performance played a big role in shutting down the previously-reigned World Champions. La Roja pulled off one of the most one-sided performances in the World Cup Finals history and in the end, they’ve been rewarded with the one object every footballer desires.
On the other hand, La Albiceleste got completely shut down by the best defensive performing team of the tournament, even Messi couldn’t get away with performing one last miracle this time. Emiliano Martinez did his very best to keep Argentina alive in the final with 11 saves, which is a new World Cup Finals record, and yet the one shot he couldn’t reach ended their championship reign. However, the midfielders seemed like the real architects of Argentina’s defeat. Their rash attitude saw Enzo Fernández out right before the end of 90 minutes, Paredes was also pushing his luck too much from the moment he came in and his violent acts after the full-time whistle was unnecessary. He made himself and his nation look like sore losers in front of the whole world. The injured defenders were also not helping La Albiceleste to build a gameplan that would let them be more offensive later on. Lionel Messi’s World Cup farewell tour met a bitter end, but his overall performance in this tournament at the age of 39 will be up there as one of the best individual performances of the competition’s history. Gracias, Leo!
In a nutshell, World Cup 2026 finally comes to an end with Spain’s victory over Argentina. This victory means that La Roja will be co-hosting the next World Cup in 2030 as the reigning World Champions. So now, international football slowly leaves the stage to club football and we’ll see what awaits us for the 2026/2027 season.
Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026
