FIFA World Cup 2026: Can Argentina break the holder’s curse?

CHENNAI: Recent history hasn’t been kind to the holders. Every step of the way to the final, it looked like Lionel Messi and his Argentina side were cursed, as they were just minutes away from getting knocked out one game after the other.

But every single time that the clock hit minute 80, it was a different Argentina on the field, as Messi himself activated a different version of himself, running the opposition ragged with his ball-carrying abilities and precise passes. The 39-year-old has still got it, and Spanish head coach, Luis de la Fuente knows that he has to devise a plan much better than just ‘man-marking’.

Famously while at Sevilla’s youth team, de la Fuenta assigned a player to mark Messi, and minutes after he substituted the player in the 70th minute, the Argentine scored four times.

"So we won't use man-to-man marking this time. We have to stay alert and pay special attention, certainly," de la Fuente said before the clash.

But this Argentine team isn’t just Messi, it is much more than that, as various players have stepped up in crunch situations with clutch displays, like Enzo Fernandez’s winner against Egypt, Lautaro Martinez’s jumping to inch-perfect precision to head home the winner against England in the second semi-final.

Questions though would be raised of its defence, as the pairing of Lisandro Martinez and Cristian Romero is yet to keep a clean sheet in the knock-out phase for the La Albiceleste, which could resurface in the final against Spain.

There is, however, another fascinating subplot. Back in 2017, it was de la Fuente who helped Lionel Scaloni begin his coaching journey. Years later, mentor and student reunite — no longer in a classroom, but on football's grandest stage, with the World Cup hanging in the balance.