MESSI SETS UP TWO LATE GOALS, NOW HE FACES BABY YAMAL

Argentina are in the World Cup final, and they got there the way they have gotten everywhere this tournament, late and through Lionel Messi.

England led. Anthony Gordon tapped in a Morgan Rogers cross in the 55th minute, and for half an hour it looked like England were finally going to reach a final for the first time since 1966. Then Messi took the game over without scoring. He set up Enzo Fernández to level it in the 85th minute, then found Lautaro Martínez for the winning header in the second minute of stoppage time. Two assists in the last seven minutes, a 2-1 comeback, and Argentina are through.

At 39, in what is expected to be his last World Cup, Messi did not need to score to decide a semifinal. He just needed the ball at the right moments.

The Final Is the One Everyone Wanted

Argentina now play Spain on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, and the matchup writes itself. It is Messi against Lamine Yamal. The 39 year old against the 18 year old. The player who has defined the last two decades of the sport against the one being handed the next.

And these two have a photo.

In 2007, a one year old Lamine Yamal was photographed with a 20 year old Messi for a Unicef calendar shoot in Barcelona. Finally Offline covered that photo and what it means now. Nineteen years later, the baby from that picture is the best young player in the world, and he is standing between Messi and one more trophy.

Spain Have Been Waiting

Spain reached the final first, beating France 2-0 on Tuesday behind Mikel Oyarzabal, the tournament's best defense shutting down its best attack. Yamal, 18 and already spoken of as the best footballer alive, has carried them, and now he gets the ending no script would dare write: his first World Cup final, against the man who held him as a baby.

The Read

This is the final the whole tournament was building toward, whether anyone admitted it or not. All four semifinalists were former champions, but only one pairing carried a story this size. Messi does not have to win it for the moment to land. He is 39, he just dragged Argentina past England with two touches in the last seven minutes, and on Sunday he plays the kid from the photo for the World Cup. Some things you cannot script. This is one of them.