Argentina vs Spain Highlights, FIFA World Cup 2026 Final: Ferran Torres’ goal helps ESP dethrone 10-man ARG

There it is. It was Iker Casillas 16 years ago. It is Rodri now. Spain lif the World Cup. Trumpo hangs around in the frame after handing the trophy over, as he did during the Club World Cup. There is a slight delay because of that with Infantino sheepishly running towards him and ushering him away but Rodri does the thing anyhow. He lifts the trophy, the players dance in delight and off go the confetti. Spain join Uruguay (1930, 1950) and France (1998, 2018) in being two-time World Cup champions. Lamine Yamal is among the rest of the players who have their moment with the trophy after that. He is only 19 years old, his story is only starting to be written, and he has already won a World Cup and a Euro. Eventually, head coach Luis de la Fuente, who has joined Vicente del Bosque in an elite, elite league of Spanish football figures, gets his hands on the trophy as well. A World Cup final to forget perhaps, but a moment to remember forever for these players and the Spanish fans.

It is fitting that the Spanish captain is declared best player of the tournament. He has been a towering presence in midfield, metronomic consistency. Rodri had won the Ballon d'Or after Spain won the 2024 Euros, is he in with a shout for that this time around as well? Only time will tell.

The 19-year-old Barcelona youngster is projected to become an all-time great. He played like an all-time great in this World Cup. Showed calmness beyond his years. It looks like Cubarsi wasn't expecting that award. Takes some time to realise he is being called on stage.

Paredes was shown a red card for his efforts after the full-time whistle was blown. Videos that are doing the rounds on social media do no favours to him or Argentina. This might just be one of the worst performances of all time by a team in the World Cup final. No stats to back that one up though. Just a shot in the dark.

THERE IT IS! SPAIN WIN THEIR 2ND WORLD CUP, THE FIRST AFTER 2010. They are also now the first team to hold both the men's and women's World Cups simultaneously. The class of 2010 is in the stands and they celebrated as much as the players on the field when Torres had scored what turned out to be the winning goal. That victory 16 years ago was the crowning moment for a team that is often regarded as one of the greatest of all time to ever grace international football.

There is a lot of argy bargy on the pitch, it looks like Leandro Paredes has lost his rag completely and is throwing punches. Lionel Scaloni is running on to the pitch as well, seemingly to stop his players from getting life bans. There is no two ways about it. This has been an awful performance from Argentina, made worse by the fact that they are going at Spain with fists instead of shaking hands with them.

116th min: Williams leaves Molina for dead on the left by cutting inside and is seemingly through on goal. He has Torres on the right to square it to if he needs but instead, he gets into a tangle with his own feet and kicks the ball out for a goal kick.

113th min: Spain are now keeping the ball with them as much as possible and with every pass, the Spanish fans are going 'Ole'. What a curious performance this is from Argentina. Not a single shot across nearly 120 minutes and change of football, plenty of dramatic dives peppered in between and a red card as well.

Nitin Sharma: Seven times a team has scored comeback wins in the FIFA World Cup final. Italy remains the only team which has won in penalties after trailing first and then scoring the equaliser in regulation time before the team won the 2006 World Cup final against France winning on penalties. Can Lionel Messi’s Argentina make a comeback?

All right then, into the last 15 minutes of normal football in this World Cup, after which awaits the at times unbearable drama of the penalty shootout.

103rd min: If Spain lose this, Merino will have nightmares about this for the rest of the month at least. Williams puts in a vicious cross from the left, Martinez was caught out and sat up wonderfully for Merino. But his header goes wide.

98th min: Rodri squares the ball in from the right, Merino goes after it but Otamendi goes down behind him holding his toe. Martinez gets to the ball before Merino but it spills to Williams who puts it into the back of the net. Cue pandemoniun but the referee's whistle cuts right through it. It looks like he has given a foul to Argentina for whatever Merino did to Otamendi there. Nothing is clear yet.

Well it looked like a really harsh call, there didn't seem to be any contact there between Merino and Otamendi, and it would've probably been ruled out if VAR got involved. But the ref's whistle had blown before the ball went past the goal line, which means VAR can't get involved.

91st minute: All right, we are underway in extra time now. Half an hour of it, two halves of 15 minutes each. Argentina, unsurprisingly, parked right inside their third. They were doing that when they had their full unit available, they will probablu be even more cagey now that they are down to 10 men.

Meanwhile, some more stats from Nitin Sharma: "Enzo Fernandez became the sixth player to be handed a red card in a FIFA World Cup final. He is also third Argentine player to have been handed a red card in a FIFA World Cup final after Pedro Monzon and Gustavo Dezotti were handed red cards in the World Cup final against West Germany in the 1990 final."

90+9th min: Free kick from a dangerous position for Spain. This could be the last kick of regular time. Yamal stands over it, about 25 yards away from goal. He takes it, curling to Martinez's left and the Argentina goalkeeper does one of those superhuman dives to palm it away.

90+3rd min: Messi runs right into Laporte and well, gets a very soft free kick. That comes to nothing for Argentina, Spain break and Nico Williams shoots, it is palmed off by Martinez.

84th min: The Argentina captain has been non-existent in this second half. He is seen for the first time in ages taking the ball and charging down the right hand side into the Spanish half before the ball is wrestled away from him. One. Way. Traffic.

77th min: Oh the chances are raining down now for Spain. They brought on Mikel Merino and Nico Williams for Dani Olmo and Alex Baena. Pedri then makes his way to the D, he is pushed just before he takes the shot which is right into the hands of Martinez. Seconds later, Cubarsi hammers a shot in 25 yards from goal, Martinez makes a hash of that save and almost pushes it into his own net.

Another corner for Spain, which is defended by the Argentinians but it comes back to the kick-taker Yamal on the left again. He puts in the cross, Torres rises to head it towards goal but it is straight at Emi Martinez who collects it gratefully.

62nd min: All right, De la Fuente now shows us his cards. Mikel Oyarzabal's brilliant campaign ends on five goals. He and Fabian Ruiz are replaced by Ferran Torres and Pedri respectively.

55th min: Cubarsi clears the ball after which Oyarzabal gets himself forward with some slick one-touch passes between him and Olmo, Yamal and Fabian Ruiz. He reaches the Argentine box but Otamendi takes the ball away once he shapes up for a shot. A sight of what Spain can do and, more importantly, a sight of what football can be at long last.

All right, Spain get us underway for the second half. As stated earlier, no changes for Spain while Argentina have brought on Paredes for Gonzalez.

All right, so after BTS do their thing, Ted Lasso and Coach Beard introduce Justin Bieber. Then Shakira and Burna Boy perform the tournament song 'Dai Dai''. Now all this is supposed to mirror the Super Bowl half-time show, which is maybe a way of making this World Cup final more familiar and less scary for Americans, if we ignore the financial bits of course. But this really is like a poorer version of the elaborate and extravagant performances that tend to be seen at half time of the Super Bowl, case in point being Bad Bunny's Super Bowl LX half time show this year. The fact its all being done in daylight doesn't help it one bit. Moreover, the performers' live vocals is what tends to be broadcast at those half-time shows; not the case today. Chris Martin and Coldplay end the whole disjointed affair.

And two of them on target, all of them coming from Spain. Robbie Fowler and Olivier Kahn in the Zee studio say that they weren't surprised that it was this cagey and well, it really is not out of the ordinary for the first halves of major finals to look somewhat like this.

44th min: Oh huge blow for Argentina. Lisandro Martinez goes down and it looks like the Manchester United defender can't carry on any more. Lionel Scaloni throws on Nicolas Otamendi in his place.

38th min: Spain stepping up the pressure a bit and Marc Cucurella seems to be the way to go for them on the left. The ball has been funnelled to full back a couple of times and he has beaten Montiel with a cheeky backheel to get forward as well. But his crosses and squared balls have all been blocked. Precious, precious little to report thus far. World Cup finals tend to be boring affairs in the beginning before finishing off with a sensationally huge crescendo. Moreoever, Spain and Argentina have been slow starters over the course of this tournament. All of this have come together to form what is arguably the most uneventful first 40 minutes of a match thus far in this year's tournament.

28th min: The camera crew has had a field day spotting stars in the crowd. US President Donald Trump is here today, he will be handing out the trophy remember. When he was shown on the screen he was sharing a laught with FIFA president Gianni Infantino and asking Brazil great Ronaldo to let him feel the World Cup trophy with his fingers. Meanwhile, there is a littany of Hollywood and pop stars in the stands today. In the middle of all that, are Spain and Argentina, getting the football back underway after the hydration break.

20th min: It has been a cagey first 20 minutes. Argentina not even close to being as aggressive as they were in the first half of the semifinal against England but there is a bit of a nibble in this match regardless. Messi, meanwhile, has been very quiet so far. He didn't get a touch on the ball after kick off the match until around the 16th minute. Eventually, he induced a free kick when Fabian Ruiz clattered into his back just as he got his leg on the ball in midfield. That free kick came to nothing for Argentina.

And just before that Yamal shot, there was a nervy moment for Spain when Messi seemingly found himself in the clear but sweeper keeper extraordinaire Unai Simon came and kicked the ball away at the halfway line. It has been an entertaining start in which Argentina have had slightly more of the goal. But Spain arguably looking more dangerous.

3rd min: Argentina and Spain are both in their traditional colour, sky blue and white and red and navy respectively. So far, no serious forays into either final thirds.

If in case you haven't seen it in the news already, England and France decided to not defend in the third place playoff. England won the match 6-4 but Kylian Mbappe scored two, which puts him two clear of Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot. If Messi has to win it, and he probably doesn't give two hoots about it at the moment, he needs to score a hat-trick or score two goals and get a hat-trick.

Is Slavko Vincic of Slovenia. He will be assisted by Tomaž Klancnik (Slovenia) and Andraž Kovacic (Slovenia). Adham Makhadmeh (Jordan) is the fourth official while the reserve assistant referee is Mohammad Al-Kalaf (Jordan). Vincic, of course, had a bit of a story to tell before his refereeing career took flight. READ MORE.

The lineups are out already and this is how they look:

Spain: Unai Simon; Pedro Porro, Pau Cubarsi, Aymeric Laporte, Marc Cucurella; Rodri, Fabian Ruiz; Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, Alex Baena; Mikel Oyarzabal.

Subs: David Raya, Pubill, Grimaldo, E Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Gavi, Pino, J Garcia, Williams, Zubimendi, Pedri, Munoz, Iglesias.

Argentina: Emiliano Martinez; Molina, Cristian Romero, Lisandro Martinez, Tagliafico; Enzo Fernandez; Rodrigo De Paul, Alexis Mac Allister, Nico Gonzalez; Lionel Messi, Julian Alvarez.

Subs: Musso, Senesi, Montiel, Barco, Lo Celso, Rulli, Palacios, Paredes, Almada, Simeone, Paz, Otamendi, Lopez, Lautaro Martinez, Medina.