It was a work so complete, so thoroughly interpreted to the letter, that the players of France turned it into a song. “N’Golo Kanté, he’s short, he’s nice, he locked up Leo Messi, but we all know he’s a cheater,” said the lyric after his midfielder, detailed to smother Argentina’s No.10 in Kazan four years, barely allowed him to smell. .
Messi received little more than an assist for Sergio Agüero’s final consolation; he would end the afternoon looking down at his feet and suspecting that a dream had gone up in smoke, as France cruised to the quarter-finals and well beyond.
The reference to cheating? Kanté’s teammates had a running gag, not entirely based on fiction, as he later admitted, that he cheated at cards. But they will need a joker of their own at the World Cup final, because their proven recipe for success is not available. This time France has gone even without an injured Kanté and has not always been convincing. When Messi, whose last adventure at this level has comfortably been his best, awaits him in Lusail on Sunday, he will have to find an equally effective solution.
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This is not the case for the French players, especially the likes of Olivier Giroud, who saw it all up close in that last encounter. Their celebrations after going ahead against Morocco on Wednesday were, publicly at least, low-key because they knew what awaited them. Like Argentina, they are a team of moments rather than sustained spells of consistency and control. Someone other than Kanté needs to make sure Messi is denied the chance to breathe life into his side.
“I remember in 2018, N’Golo was on his back, behind him, the whole game,” Giroud said, flashing an unprompted memory when the subject came up. “But this time I don’t know what the plan will be. We’ll see with the manager.”
Didier Deschamps has three days to find one. “He played a very precise role,” the manager said of Kanté after the scrappy job in Tatarstan. “It’s true that we didn’t see much of Lionel Messi when he played against us.”
Messi moves even more freely, more lightly, on the pitch today; it has a habit of being in an apparently dead space before attracting the work. The ball will find him, that’s for sure. The key is to limit those moments and deny him oxygen when it comes his way. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.
Sometimes you can put your best defender, and maybe the best defender of the tournament, in his way and still be separated. Croatia and Josko Guardiol found out on Tuesday. A functioning midfield will give France their best hope, however, and Aurélien Tchouaméni has bridged the Kanté-Paul Pogba gap admirably over the past month. A first-half burst through Morocco’s lines, which almost resulted in a goal for Giroud or Kylian Mbappé, was one of their most exciting moments, but life was not always easy against the opposition accurate and mobile.
Aurélien Tchouaméni takes on Sofyan Amrabat as France beat Morocco to book their place in the World Cup finals. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
“It’s both,” Tchouaméni said when asked which of the absentees’ roles he plays. “Sometimes it’s to recover some balls and sometimes I have the opportunity to score a goal like the last game [against England], or today with almost attendance. It’s a mix between these. We try to do everything we can to help the team in midfield. I think we did a great job.”
If Adrien Rabiot is fit for the final, perhaps Tchouaméni will attempt more dedicated screening work. Still, Deschamps may prefer to pass the responsibility on to Messi at this point rather than assign a captor. It helps that Antoine Griezmann, far more than a number 10, has been France’s man everywhere. In the 31-year-old, they have an advanced, reshaped midfielder who has shown he can come in to bolster the pair at the back while organizing space up front. Messi may not be able to drop as much as he would like Argentina to move if Griezmann slips out.
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“We’re not going to let him enjoy the best night he can have,” Giroud said. “We want to win another World Cup. We will try everything to stop it.” You will need to know how to do it.
Giroud pointed out that France’s younger players, such as Tchouaméni and Tchouaméni’s former Monaco teammate Youssouf Fofana, have the benefit of a senior core that knows exactly what a winning campaign is all about. The older generation led by example from the front. In the first half against Morocco, veteran centre-forward Giroud tracked influential midfielder Sofyan Amrabat so diligently that his opponent said: “Stop!” The sense is that a collective effort presents the best hope of overturning Messi.
Antoine Griezmann
But sometimes, as Kanté knows all too well, you can play your cheat card. The 4-3 thriller in 2018 was equally notable as a key moment for Mbappé, who was unplayable by scoring twice and winning a penalty. It was logical to think that the baton of greatness had been handed to the younger man. As a result, the Paris Saint-Germain teammates more or less share it now. For all the talk, the best response to Messi might be a similar display from France’s greatest hope.
Mbappé was asked, as he walked through the bowels of the Al Bayt Stadium, his thoughts on playing in another final. “Very excited,” was his succinct offer. France must ensure that emotions arise in its kingdom and not that of the legend it usurps.