Lionel Scaloni's side have won all seven of their matches at this tournament, but rarely in comfort. They needed extra time to get past Cape Verde 3-2 in the round of 32 and Switzerland 3-1 in the quarter-finals, and came from behind more than once along the way. They have scored 19 goals — more than any other team in the competition — but have conceded seven, which marks them out as a side that can be hurt. Their 2-1 semi-final win over England was their sternest test, two late Messi-assisted goals overturning Gordon's opener. Through it all, Messi has been the constant: eight goals, eight assists across the tournament — output that defies the fact that he spends nearly two-thirds of his time on the pitch walking. He is the leading scorer in the history of the men's World Cup. He is 39 years old and showing no signs of being anything other than the best player on the planet. Argentina have scored in every single match of this tournament.

Spain have conceded just once across the entire tournament — a single goal against Belgium — and that defensive record is as extraordinary as any statistic produced in the competition. Rodri, Pau Cubarsi, Aymeric Laporte and Unai Simón have been the spine of a team that has controlled every match they have played. They beat Uruguay, Austria, Portugal, Belgium and France on the way here, dispatching France 2-0 in the semi-final with goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and Pedro Porro. Oyarzabal is now Spain's all-time leading World Cup scorer with five goals in the tournament. Lamine Yamal is managing a hamstring issue but has been playing through it — the Barcelona teenager whose skill and directness has been one of the talking points of the entire competition. Rodri, in midfield, has controlled the tempo of every match Spain have played, giving La Furia Roja the platform to dictate rather than chase.

These sides have met 14 times — six wins each, two draws. Their only previous World Cup encounter was in 1966, which Argentina won 2-1. This is the first time the number one and number two ranked nations in the world have met in a World Cup match since FIFA introduced the modern ranking system. Argentina are trying to become the first nation since Brazil in 1958 and 1962 to win back-to-back World Cups. Spain are trying to win their second, sixteen years after their first in South Africa.

Messi against Yamal is the contest that defines this final — two players from the same club, Barcelona, from completely different eras of their lives, on the grandest possible stage. Messi is playing in what is almost certainly his last World Cup. Yamal is playing in what is almost certainly his first of many. The symmetry is impossible to write and yet somehow real.