08.00 pm: Hello all and welcome to our live blog of the most significant football match that’s left in the year. It’s Fifa World Cup final day and, incidentally, it’s in December.
In many ways, it’s been a unique tournament. The first ever hosted in the Middle East, taking place at the end of the year, and what not. The build-up, and even the course of the tournament, has seen plenty of on-field issues come to the forefront. And tonight, it all reaches an epic conclusion. For the organisers of the tournament, perhaps there could not have been a bigger final in their wildest dreams. Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi, teammates at PSG, go head to head. It’s France vs Argentina… it’s the defending champions vs arguably the people’s favourite, if we could say that.
If Mbappe ends up on the winning side today, he will be a two-time World Cup winner at 23.
If Messi ends up on the winning side today, arguably the greatest of our times will increase his stake in the…