Defiance and divinity see Argentina claim destiny

On a night of sensory overload, it was perhaps fitting that the last few scenes were almost as bright and loud as what had come before. You heard the Argentina squad before you saw them, the thin walls of the mixed zone shuddering and falling over with their bangs and jumps.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

It was more than three hours after Gonzalo Montiel had powered in his penalty and they finally came through, ostensibly to speak to media. Except, they only sang at them, Lionel Messi lifting the World Cup with everyone else looking up at it and him adoringly, while constantly chanting the same lyrics. "It doesn't matter what those whore journalists say, the whore that gave birth to them."

That was a chant that started in the 2021 Copa America, that first international trophy that was so important in uniting this group for this World Cup, as a backlash to some of the criticism of Lionel Scaloni's group. It was one last little conflict, a show of the combativeness that has characterised this team's World Cup - not least in the final. A point was made.

The Argentine players would not be stopping to speak. It was actually the first time Messi didn't fulfil his media duties all tournament, although it's fair to say that letting The Independent watch him dance up and down with the World Cup from just two feet away was a more valuable moment than any mixed words. This was football history. These are the events you remember.

Many of the Argentine players may not remember too much of this, mind, but only because it was one of such rapturous joy they are lost in the moment. It's impossible to take it in, and it can only be embraced. That is probably why it is equally fair to say we may not have got much sense of them. In many of the social media posts, many of the Argentina players were just cursing, unable to believe what had happened.