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Special thanks to Mikail Ahmed Shaikh, Muskaan Mujahid and Mahnoor Vazir for providing the live updates and Mir Shabbar Ali and Ahmed Ali for the real-time analysis.
Spain’s Rodri has been named the best player of the tournament, being awarded the Golden Ball for his leadership on the pitch.
Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simon has won the Golden Glove for best goalkeeper in the tournament.
The whistle blows. Spain have done it.
For the first time since 2010, Spain are World Cup champions. A 1-0 victory in extra time. A performance of control, patience and dominance. They were the better team from start to finish. Argentina could only hold on for so long.
Ferran Torres’ goal in the second half of extra time finally broke Argentina’s resistance. Emiliano Martinez, for all his heroics, could not deny him. Spain had one goal. It was enough.
Argentina walk away heartbroken. They gave everything. But everything was not enough.
Spain are the champions of the world. At last.
The final kick is painstakingly taken by Martinez, but the final whistle has followed it, and here comes charging in the Spanish bench and staff.
Ferran Torres’ finish makes the difference, although there should have been more goals. But none of it matters now as Spain doubles the number of their World Cup titles.
A wicked cross from the right is cleared away by the Spanish defenders and Argentina win two corners in a row. The sequence ends with Simeone’s missed chance.
Williams runs in and cuts in from the left, expected to curl it in the far corner, but an attempt at trickery deprives him of the ball under zero pressure.
Four minutes left. Argentina have been outplayed, outnumbered, and outclassed. They have spent the whole match chasing shadows.
This is the kind of match Argentina have made their own this tournament. They trailed against Egypt. They were stretched against Switzerland. They were outplayed for long stretches in every knockout game. And they kept finding a way. Not through control. Not through dominance. Through something else entirely.
Can they do it again? They have done it before. But this time, they need to do it with 10 men. They need to do it with no possession. They need to do it in the final minutes of a World Cup final.
The clock is ticking. Spain is still in control. Argentina are still waiting for their moment. If it comes, it will be their greatest escape yet. If it doesn’t, they have nothing left to give.
Argentina with a quick corner, Messi crosses in from the right but the the half chance goes begging.
Torres was through on goal with Argentina defenders caught completely out of position.
The striker makes it two before the linesman rules offside.
Ferran Torres. Just seconds into the second half of extra time. Nico Williams rises above the defence and heads it back across goal and Torres, with a left-footed strike, finally breaks the deadlock.
After 106 minutes of resistance, after save after save, after chance after chance, Argentina’s wall has finally cracked. Spain lead. Martinez is beaten. And Argentina, down to 10 men, now have to find something they haven’t shown all game, a way back.
Argentina are trying to drag this to penalties. It’s written all over them. Every clearance is a sigh of relief, every foul a chance to catch their breath, every pass forward a risk they’re no longer willing to take.
They’re not looking for a winner. They’re looking for the final whistle. Spain have dominated this final,more possession, more chances, more control, but they haven’t found the goal to kill it. And now Argentina are within touching distance of their favourite outcome.
The shootout. Martinez. Chaos. Hope.
Nico Williams thinks he’s won it. The ball’s in the back of the net. Spain’s bench erupts. And then the whistle goes. Foul. Mikel Merino on Nicolas Otamendi.
The referee says no goal. Spain’s hearts break. Argentina’s hearts beat again.
Replays show there was contact. Was it enough? That’s the kind of decision that will be argued about for years. But for now, the flag stays down. The goal doesn’t count. Argentina breathe. Spain fume.
Martinez survives again. Argentina survive again. This final has everything except a winner.
Merino gets the inch-perfect delivery in the box but misses a sitter as relieved Argentina look to take it to penalties.
What would have been the World Cup-winning goal has been turned down by the referee.
Williams finally saw Martinez beaten, but Mikel Merino apparently played foul. The replays don’t really make it clear how.
He’s everywhere. Every cross, every shot, every desperate lunge into the box, he’s there. The save from Yamal’s free kick at the end of normal time was world-class. Now, in extra time, he’s just denied another one.
Down to 10 men, Argentina should have been finished. But Martinez is the brick wall they keep running into. Spain have thrown everything at him. He’s thrown it all back.
This is his final. Whatever happens next, he’s given Argentina a chance they had no right to have.
Lamine Yamal. 19 years old. The weight of a nation on his shoulders. Free kick. Last seconds of normal time. He strikes it perfectly, curling it towards the right…
And Emiliano Martinez flies across to push it wide.
The kid did everything right. The veteran did everything better. Spain thought they’d won it. Martinez said no. Argentina down to 10 men, somehow still standing. Extra time awaits.
Dear oh dear, what a close to the first 90 minutes. Spain would be ruing their failure to convert any of the many chances they created. It ends with yet another save by Emi Martinez, probably the best of the match so far, as he dives to his left to parry off Yamal’s curling hit on the dead ball from just outside the box.
Enzo Fernandez sees the red card following a late challenge in the dying minutes of extra time.
Dawn Sport’s Ahmed Ali adds:
Argentina are trying to drag this game into the mud. It’s not pretty, but it’s deliberate. Every foul, every delay, every little nudge, it’s all designed to break Spain’s rhythm and pull them into a scrap they don’t want. The foul count is already climbing. Laporte warned about this before the game. He said Argentina leave “little messages” with their challenges, and he was right. The question is whether the referee will let this descend into chaos or clamp down on it early.
