WORLD CUP RECAP: Gareth Southgate set to stay on as Three Lions boss and build up to World Cup final

It's clumsy from Ousmane Dembele who trips Angel di Maria inside the box. It's also softy but VAR is not overturning that - and so it shouldn't.

'A half chance slipped away from Messi. And a better chance was fluffed by Di Maria. Both men look to the skies. Argentina have to seize their opportunities while they are on top or, as England found out, France will punish them.'

20min: About as close as France have come to doing anything in an attacking sense but Olivier Giroud heads over.

17min: Having said that, France lose the ball on the left side and it leads to Rodrigo De Paul cutting a ball back into the box. It's behind Lionel Messi but it does find Angel di Maria who wastefully fires way over the bar with a first time effort.

14min: Little sign of French improvement. They have at least calmed down Argentina's fast attacking start but are making little inroads into troubling the South American defence.

'Argentina have started superbly. Stronger, hungrier, sharper, faster. They're snarling and snapping their way into challenges. France are struggling to get any sort of foothold in the game.'

8min: Rodrigo De Paul sees a shot deflected behind for a corner, before there is a bit of Spurs-on-Spurs action as Cristian Romero challenges Hugo Lloris.

Lloris even needs a bit of treatment and lets the referee know he isn't happy that Romero wasn't punished.

Hotspur Way will sure be an interesting place to be at in the next few days or so...

5min: France have been a bit wobbly so far, they can't get their passes together as Alexis Mac Allister has the first shot on goal with a 25-yard effort straight at Hugo Lloris.

3min: Argentina, thanks to their huge partisan following, take the pre-match battle in terms of passion and they attack France early here.

A couple of 'let them know you're there' challenges from both teams early on but no chances as yet.

A reminder of the team news as we get going

Argentina: Damian Martinez, Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico, Di Maria, De Paul, Fernandez, Mac Allister, Messi, Alvarez.
Subs: Armani, Foyth, Montiel, Paredes, Pezzella, Acuna, Rulli, Palacios, Correa, Almada, Gomez, Rodriguez, Dybala, Lisandro Martinez, Lautaro Martinez.

France: Lloris, Kounde, Varane, Upamecano, Theo Hernandez, Tchouameni, Rabiot, Dembele, Griezmann, Mbappe, Giroud.
Subs: Pavard, Disasi, Guendouzi, Muani, Fofana, Veretout, Mandanda, Saliba, Coman, Areola, Konate, Camavinga, Thuram.

Javier Pastore, Novak Djokovic, Nasser Al Khelaifi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Paul Pogba have also made it to Lusail as the players make their way out of the tunnel.

'Argentine fans outnumbered the French supporters by around 90 per cent in the 89,000-seater Lusail Stadium.

'France’s team emerged from their team bus quietly while Argentine’s players including talisman Lionel Messi sang and danced around their bus, much to the bemusement of their Sikh driver whose turban was the same colour as the South Americans light blue.

'Messi was last off the bus and first onto the pitch for the warm up and received the loudest reception while Kylian Mbappe was cheered loudly by the French supporters massed behind a goal.

'The World Cup final is the 64th match of the tournament for which around £180 billion has been spent on to stage by Qatar.

'Tickets were being sold on the black market for up to £5,000 a few hours before kick-off.'

Pablo Zabaleta: 'You can see what he means to the players, he is like a father. It makes a huge difference for a football team when you have a leader that everyone will follow.'

Alan Shearer spoke highly of Deschamps' man management before saying: 'The best bit of man management for me was with Terry Venables leading into Euro 96. He took me aside and said regardless of what happens in the next two friendly games, you will be my centre forward. It gave me huge confidence.

Both speaking on the BBC

'Huge roars from the crowd inside the Lusail Stadium as Lionel Messi's face appears on the four big screens at each corner of the arena as the team are announced.

'There are going to be other great players on the pitch here in this final but this match is about Messi. He has been the greatest player in the world for most of the last two decades and this represents his last chance to win football's biggest prize.

'Narratives don't get much more simple or compelling than that.'

Not going to lie, I had to double take at the Antoine Griezmann picture - I thought he was doing an incredible jumping splits.

If France win today, they will become the first team to defend the trophy since Brazil in 1962 (below) when even without the injured Pele for much of the competition they still triumphed in Chile. Football was played in black and white in those days of course...

'Now we have got a Closing Ceremony. Confession. I have no time for Opening or Closing ceremonies unless they happen at the Olympic Games.

'Most of the time, they feel like half-hearted, absurd affectations. But maybe, I'm out of step.

'Judging by the outrage that greeted the BBC debating the issues around this World Cup rather than screening the Opening Ceremony in its entirety, I imagine everyone will be gripped by every single second of this finale.'

It's the team we reported from earlier but Marcos Acuna has had to pull out meaning Nicolas Tagliafico keeps his place.

Angel di Maria though returns for the first time since the group stage and displaces Leandro Paredes in the side.

Oliver is of course referring to how BBC opted against screening the opening ceremony.

For the record, they are not - at least not as I type. ITV though are...

'It turns out that World Cup Final day, December 18, is also Qatar National Day. It has been designated Qatar National Day since before Qatar won the right to stage the tournament so what a hugely fortuitous co-incidence that it should coincide with the most momentous event in Qatar's relatively short history.

'Either that or the organisers were planning for a winter World Cup all along. It all fits with one of the themes of this World Cup. Nothing is quite as it seems.'

Raphael Varane, Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot had been low with a virus but all three start along with Olivier Giroud who was also a doubt today.

Ibrahima Konate and Youssouf Fofana drop out the side as Rabiot and Upamecano return.

We've already through their other two meetings at this tournament, but their most recent was only four years ago, with France running out 4-2 winners in the last-16 clash in Russia. 

A see-saw game resulted in France taking the lead with an Antoine Griezmann penalty only for Angel Di Maria and Gabriel Mercado to score for Argentina either side of half-time.
France though hit a three-goal blitz in 11 minutes starting with Benjamin Pavard before the hour mark before Kylian Mbappe found the net twice.

Sergio Aguero hit a consolation goal in the last minute but it wasn't enough to prevent Jorge Sampaoli's side being dumped out.

Argentina have to go back 13 years for their last win over France beating them 2-0 in a Marseille friendly thanks to goals from Jonas Gutierrez and Lionel Messi.

France don't have a great record over Argentina - winning just three of their 12 overall meetings, Argentina taking six of them.

Speaking of Messi, big cheers from inside the stadium from the Argentina fans as they see the forward on the big screens arriving on the team bus.

Martinez, Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Acuna, Di Maria, De Paul, Enzo Fernandez, Mac Allister, Messi, Alvarez.

As you may have gathered by now, England are not very popular due a conflict from 40 years ago.

But then again France have hardly had the greatest relationships historically with England too. Basically if you are an English fan watching the final, it may not be easy to pick a team to support today!

But he may also be one of the unlucky supporters stuck in traffic...

If only we knew there would be a World Cup final today?...

Anywyay, the roads are struggling too. Taxi drivers dropping fans 50 minutes from the Lusail Stadium to avoid gridlock.

All Doha Metro stations and roads around the stadium are currently experiencing high demand. Access to the stations is delayed and lengthy waiting times should be expected.

And I thought London's Central Line had hit new lows...

Meanwhile on the Qatar trains, chaos the latest from the Supreme Committee is that security staff are ‘pausing’ people at the entrances and then letting them into key Metro stations to regulate the flow into the system.

Not too sure on the data used for this, but it's as close too quantitative data as we can get I guess to try and predict a winner.

Lloris, Kounde, Varane, Upamecano, T.Hernandez, Griezmann, Tchouameni, Rabiot, O.Dembele, Mbappe, Giroud.

Looks like Giroud and Varane have overcome potential fitness issues to start.

KATE HIND: Little did Antonela Roccuzzo know that when she met a young boy who dreamed of being of being a footballer when she was just five, that she would be cheering on the best player on the planet in today's World Cup final. 

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Stitched onto his left boot are the names of his third son Ciro as well as his wife's name Anto(nela).

I assume the names of his other two children Thiago and Mateo are on the other boot?

Yes, just the three - despite this story going back to the very start of the competition. The first came in the first edition in 1930, with Argentina winning a group stage clash 1-0, the second didn't happen for another 48 years when they met during the finals hosted by the South American side. Nothing had changed though, with Argentina winning this group stage match too, triumphing 2-1 (below).

Captain Daniel Passarella opened the scoring with a penalty in Buenos Aires on half-time before Michel Platini equalised on the hour, only for Leopoldo Luque to give Argentina the lead again in the 73rd minute.

CHARLOTTE DALY: France have secured a place in the World Cup final without Pogba - who was ruled out of the tournament with a thigh injury after recovering from his knee surgery. 

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Sunday at the Lusail Stadium in the northern suburbs of Doha, where the city starts to think about giving way to the desert, a great odyssey, a quest which will define the sporting element of this most controversial of World Cups, will draw to a close when Lionel Messi, the world's greatest footballer for much of the last two decades, tries to win the one prize that has eluded him.

On the Msheireb station in Doha, some bright spark has decided to change the routeway system including the escalators ahead of the World Cup final and it's causing manic problems right now.

Let's hope this is sorted out sooner rather than later...

Big smiles as usual from Ian Wright and Gary Neville... and I guess that's about as close we will get to one from Roy Keane!

Sportsmail's Max Mathews lays out his joint France-Argentina team ahead of this weekend's tournament showpiece. 

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Lots to go at here. Let's start by saying this is already wrong as Messi is now 35 years old.

But is this such a big prediction even if it was from seven years ago? By then we knew this would be a winter World Cup and it's not a total surprise to see Argentina in a final is it?

I'll throw this one out there for you to chew over.

Can never be too careful I guess - thankfully though we haven't seen much use of them during these finals.

They've played together since they were kids, and today they could all land a mutual dream together despite having gone their separate ways in their professional careers.

Karim Benzema emerged as a shock contender to return from injury for the World Cup final this week having missed the entire tournament.

But if you hoped to see him in the final at some point today, well, you've probably got more chance of seeing England there...

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A group of gibbons in Zagreb zoo have been predicting results all tournament but in what looks like being a very tight final to call, it appears even they are split on who will win in Lusail.

Paul the Octopus wouldn't have stood for this 'sitting on the fence' nonsense.

Is this too petty or just a laugh? A Paris metro station has reportedly changed its name from Argentina to France just for the World Cup final.

Not too sure if it is really necessary myself. I mean it does little for less regular users of the service who may not even be aware or care for the World Cup final and just leave them potentially confused, but then maybe I'm just flexing too much for the fun police.

I'd say on balance the big narrative today is on if Lionel Messi can finally win the World Cup and follow past great forwards for the country to have done just that including Diego Maradona and Mario Kempes.

The latter has recently spoken to the Mail on Sunday's Rob Draper and warns Argentina that unless they win they will quickly become forgotten.

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Putting aside all the politics that have hung over this tournament, judging this edition of the World Cup on its sporting merits it's been a cracker hasn't it?

I won't go as far as saying 'the best of all time' but I've certainly seen worse (cough, cough, South Africa 2010).

Here's a snapshot of the knock-out stages that show France and Argentina's route to the final after topping their respective groups.

Only one can prevail as one of the greatest players of all time looks to win the World Cup with his likely final chance, while France look to create history by becoming the first team to defend their status as world champions for the first time since 1962.

Either way it's going to be a seismic day in the football calendar as I welcome you to our live coverage of the World Cup final.