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Some matches are good. A rare few become the standard against which everything else is measured. The 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France is one of those — a game that seemed to contain three matches in one, and a fitting place to understand why finals capture the imagination like nothing else in sport.

Two acts, then chaos

For an hour it was an Argentina coronation. Lionel Messi converted a first-half penalty and Ángel Di María added a flowing team goal, and France — the defending champions — could not get into the game. Then, inside two minutes late on, Kylian Mbappé struck twice, including his own penalty, to drag the match to 2-2 and force extra time out of nothing.

Extra time only raised the stakes. Messi prodded Argentina back in front; Mbappé answered again from the spot to complete a hat-trick, the first in a World Cup final since 1966. At 3-3 the match had become an open exchange of blows between the two best forwards of their generation, each refusing to let the other have the last word.

The shootout

It went to penalties, the cruellest and most theatrical of endings. Argentina held their nerve, goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez produced a crucial save, and a generation's wait ended with Messi finally lifting the trophy that had eluded him. For France there was the agony of losing a final they had spent most of unable to control, yet had still very nearly won.

Why it endures

The 2022 final had everything that makes knockout football special: a clear narrative — Messi's last shot at the prize — overturned and restored within a single night; an individual duel of the highest order; and a finish decided by the lottery of penalties. It rewarded the patient viewer with drama that no script would dare write.

Whether it is truly the greatest final ever will always be a matter of taste — supporters of 1970, 1986 and 2014 will argue their corner. But as a self-contained piece of theatre, 2022 set a bar that any future final, including those to come in 2026, will be measured against. That is the quiet promise of a World Cup final: the chance, every four years, to witness a game people will still be describing decades later.