When they met in the World Cup last 16 four years ago, it seemed like a torch had been passed. But Sunday’s final offers one more showdown, this one at the summit.
AL RAYYAN, Qatar — It felt like one of those seismic World Cup days when both history and the future are being rewritten, or when one era veers sharply into the next. Argentina and France had engaged in an epic round-of-16 duel in Kazan, Russia, that featured seven goals, the inevitable collapse of the flawed South Americans and the emphatic global emergence of Kylian Mbappé, the 19-year-old Parisian phenom whose confidence and control at blazing speed made all the difference.