Stopping the stars won't be enough to win World Cup

DOHA: Despite the high profile performances of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe in Qatar, Argentina and France can create danger all over the pitch, so stopping the superstars is only one battle in Sunday's (Dec 18) World Cup final war.

In the early group games, Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele were both raiding out wide, operating almost as old-fashioned wingers, with Olivier Giroud holding a traditional centre-forward role and Antoine Griezmann given licence to roam.

That is still probably Didier Deschamps’ model of choice, but as he found in the knockout stages, better defences were able to shackle the wide men somewhat, forcing them to forage inside and deeper for possession.

Argentina have switched between three central defenders and a flat back four during the tournament and coach Lionel Scaloni is expected to stick with the latter on Sunday.

England were quick to double-team Mbappe whenever he picked up the ball and Argentina, probably through Nahuel Molina and Rodrigo De Paul, will try to do the same.

As England and Croatia found to their cost, however, putting resources into one area necessarily creates space elsewhere and there has been nobody at the tournament better at finding it and using it than Griezmann.

Drifting wide, but deeper than Giroud, he poses questions that central defenders don't like - go out and meet him or hold station and wait for him to come?

The problem with the latter option is that he often does not advance, instead pinging in crosses and long passes or bringing an advancing midfielder into play, as he did when setting up

Aurelien Tchouameni for his goal against England.

Tchouameni and Adrien Rabiot have both been excellent in Doha, with the latter expected to return after missing the semi-final through