The Argentina-France Match Kicks Off: The Winning Team Will Receive a Record Prize

Argentina, the holders of the America Cup, and France, the world champions, have announced their starting lineups for the World Cup final.

Argentina: Emiliano Martinez, Nicolas Tagliafico, Nicolas Otamendi, Cristian Romero, Nahuel Molina, Alexis Mac Allister, Enzo Fernandez, Rodrigo De Paul, Angel Di Maria, Lionel Messi, Julian Alvarez.

France: Hugo Lloris, Dayot Upamecano, Raphael Varane, Theo Hernandez, Jules Kounde, Aurelien Tchouameni, Adrien Rabiot, Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe, Olivier Giroud.

The Argentina-France final started at 19:00 Yerevan time. The main referee is Polish Simon Marciniak.

This marks the fourth encounter between the two teams in World Cup history. In the Round of 16 of the 2018 World Cup, France triumphed with a score of 4-3, with PSG forward Kylian Mbappe scoring a double. Four years prior, France claimed their second title since 1998.

In the 1978 World Cup, Argentina defeated France 2-1 in the group stage, with France not advancing to the playoffs, while Argentina was crowned world champion for the first time.

Argentina and France also met in the group stage of the 1930 World Cup, where Argentina won 1-0. Additionally, the two teams have played two friendly matches: Argentina won 1-0 in 2007 and 2-0 in 2009.

France has the chance to become the first team to win back-to-back titles, following Brazil, after 60 years. Argentina's most significant success after winning the World Cup title in 1986 came in 1990 and 2014 when they became runners-up, losing to Germany in both instances.

In the current World Cup, Argentina started with a shocking 1-2 loss to Saudi Arabia. In the following two matches, Lionel Scaloni's team won 2-0 against Mexico and Poland, securing first place in the group with 6 points.

In the Round of 16, Argentina defeated Australia 2-1. In the quarter-finals, Argentina won against the Netherlands 4-3 on penalties, following a 2-2 draw after regular and extra time.

In the semi-finals, Argentina defeated the 2018 World Cup runners-up Croatia 3-0. Team captain and PSG's 35-year-old forward Lionel Messi announced that this would be his last World Cup appearance.

France started the group stage with a 4-1 victory over Australia, followed by a 2-1 win against Denmark, and suffered a 0-1 defeat to Tunisia, finishing first in the group with 6 points.

In the Round of 16, France won 3-1 against Poland, eliminated England 2-1 in the quarter-finals, and won 2-0 against Morocco in the semi-finals.

The winner of the FIFA World Cup will receive a record prize. According to FIFA, the total prize pool has increased by 10% to reach €425 million. The distribution of the funds is as follows: the 16 teams that did not pass the group stage will receive €9 million each; those eliminated in the Round of 16 will get €12 million; quarter-final losers will receive €16 million; fourth-place finisher Morocco will get €24 million; and bronze medalist Croatia will receive €26 million. The winner of today's Argentina-France final will get over €40.9 million, while the loser will receive €29 million.