Don’t let the 4-3 score line fool you – only one team was going to win the first of eight World Cup knockout games, and that was France.
Argentina were always second best, and in any event were lucky to still be in the tournament after a loss, a draw and a late winner in the group stage.
France were out the blocks immediately to stamp their dominance on the game.
The first chance came in the 7th minute when speed merchant Kylian Mbappe was brought down on the edge of the box and Antoine Griezmann rattled the cross bar with his legendary left footed strike.
It was an identical situation three minutes later but this time Mbappe ran 70 metres before Marcos Rojo
nailed him inside the box.
Rojo saw yellow and Franco Armani saw nothing as Griezmann sent him the wrong way from the spot (1-0).
It was nearly a third in the same fashion, this time Nicolas Tagliafico shown yellow and Paul Pogba hitting the free kick over the wall and all.
Argentina did have a few chances against France’s many, one of which was a thunderous strike from distance by Angel di Maria as France, bent on attack, left him unmarked (1-1).
As is often the case, the level score at the break did not reflect France’s first half dominance.
It was even less credible two minutes into the second stanza when a misdirected Argentinian free kick landed at the feet of Lionel Messi and his shot deflected off Gabriel Mercado, who claimed a goal he knew nothing about as he was trying to get out of the way of the ball (1-2).
Parity was restored soon after when France’s Benjamin Pavard smacked home a long shot to even better that of Di Maria, hitting it with the outside of his foot and curling it into the top corner (2-2)
It’s amazing how often defenders have the best strikes!
Now France were on a roll and Mbappe picked up a loose ball and slammed it under the body of Armani (3-2)
The emerging star of this competition had his brace when Giroud slid through a defence-splitting pass and Mbappe did what he does best (4-2).
To all intents and purposes, the game was won, with only 10 minutes to go.
Yes, Messi did come close and Sergio Aguera put a fine header past Hugo Lloris (4-3) but this was mere consolation.
The better team won, the seven goals provided superb entertainment, and the World Cup was at last set alight!
