Spain are champions of the world for the second time. At a packed MetLife Stadium they beat Argentina 1–0 after extra time, Ferran Torres settling a final that Spain had controlled almost from the opening minute and that Argentina spent clinging on to. It is Spain's first World Cup since 2010, and it denies Argentina the chance to become the first nation to retain the trophy since Brazil in 1962.
For 90 minutes the story was Spanish pressure against Argentine resistance. Luis de la Fuente's side had 20 shots to Argentina's two and did not allow a single effort on target in regulation; the expected-goals count read 1.94 to 0.20. What kept the game scoreless was Emi Martínez, who produced the finest goalkeeping performance of the tournament when his team needed it most and finished with 11 saves, a record for a World Cup final. Time and again he was the reason the deadlock held.
The balance tipped in stoppage time at the end of the 90. Enzo Fernández was sent off for a late challenge on Pau Cubarsí, and Argentina went to extra time a man down, asking a defence that had already spent the night under siege to hold out for another half hour. It was too much. In the 106th minute, six minutes into the extra period, Pedro Porro lifted a ball to the back post, Nico Williams beat Nahuel Molina to head it back across goal, and with Martínez stranded, Torres arrived to finish from close range. After a night of near-misses, Spain had their goal.
There was no way back for Argentina, and no last act from Lionel Messi. At 39, in what was almost certainly his final World Cup match, Messi barely touched the ball, starved of it by a Spanish midfield that owned the game. He left the field close to tears. Argentina, champions in 2022, could not summon the moment that had rescued them again and again in the knockout rounds, and Messi's World Cup story ends with a second final defeat to go with the title.
For Spain, this is confirmation of a two-year climb to the top of the world game. La Roja extended their unbeaten run to 38 matches and conceded only twice across the entire tournament. De la Fuente, at 65, becomes the oldest manager to win the World Cup, and Spain become the first country to hold the men's and women's World Cup titles at the same time. Rodri, the heartbeat of the side even on a night he did much of his best work without the ball, was named the tournament's best player; Unai Simón took the Golden Glove, and Cubarsí was voted the best young player.
It was not a classic, and it will not be remembered as one. It was a final decided by control rather than chaos, by a team that suffocated the game and waited for the one chance it needed. Spain took it, and after 16 years they are world champions again.