One goal decided the biggest game in football. Ferran Torres scored it – in the 106th minute of extra time – to give Spain a 1-0 victory over Argentina and their second FIFA World Cup title.
No one else scored. Argentina, the defending champions, did not register a single shot on target across 120 minutes.
The goal itself was pure Spain. Pedro Porro swung a cross in from the right, Nico Williams rose and headed it into the path of Torres, and the Barcelona forward finished first-time from close range.
Torres had only been on the pitch since the 62nd minute, when he replaced striker Mikel Oyarzabal. That substitution made history: he became just the second substitute ever to score the winning goal in a World Cup final.
Spain controlled the final the way they had controlled the whole tournament – patient passing that kept Argentina chasing shadows for long spells. The pressure told late in normal time, when Enzo Fernandez was sent off for a reckless foul on Pau Cubarsi, leaving Argentina to face extra time with ten men.
That it stayed goalless for 105 minutes was down to one man. Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made 10 saves – a record for a men’s World Cup final – in a heroic losing effort.
For Lionel Messi, 39, it was a quiet ending to what is almost certainly his last World Cup match. He finished the tournament with 21 career World Cup goals, one behind Kylian Mbappe, who took the all-time scoring record with 22 in Saturday’s third-place game.
For Spain, the records kept falling. The 1-0 extra-time win was an echo of their first title in 2010, won by the same scoreline in the same manner. With their women’s team already world champions, Spain became the first nation ever to hold the men’s and women’s World Cups at the same time. And the victory stretched their unbeaten run to 38 matches – the longest in international football history.
Sixteen years after the age of Fernando Torres, Spanish fans had a new chant ready: another Torres, another World Cup.
For Argentina, the wait for a third straight major title ends in heartbreak in New Jersey. For Spain – with 19-year-old Lamine Yamal now a world champion – an era may just be beginning.
