All You Need to Know About the 2022 Finalissima: Italy vs Argentina

On Wednesday, Italy and Argentina face off at Wembley Stadium at 7:45 pm in the final of the Finalissima.

This is only the third time that one of these events have taken place, with the winners of the Conmebol Copa America facing the UEFA Euro winners, hence why Argentina and Italy are going up against one another.

The last time this event took place was all the way back in 1993 where Argentina beat Denmark 5-4 on penalties following a 1-1 draw at the Estadio Jose Maria Minella in Argentina, whilst the first event was played at the Parc des Princes in Paris in 1985, when France defeated Uruguay 2-0.

Lionel Messi managed to win his first senior international trophy when Argentina beat Brazil in the final of the Copa America back in July 2021 as Angel Di Maria scored the only goal of the game, ending their country's 18-year drought in this competition having come so close in both 2015 and 2016 when they were beaten on penalties by Chile in each occasion.

The 34-year-old PSG star will be looking to impress following a below-par campaign for PSG that saw him score six goals and create 14 assists in Ligue 1 on the Parisian’s way to their title success under Mauricio Pochettino.

Messi was instrumental in Argentina’s Copa America success last year having managed to score four goals and create five assists on their run to the final. Further adding to his impressive international tally of 81 goals in 160 matches.

On Wednesday night, Messi has the opportunity to win his 38th honour in his glittering 19-year career, something which he will be keen to do, especially with Argentina having the opportunity to hold the record of most Finalissima’s won.

Italy will be returning to the venue that they won Euro 2020 at, Wembley Stadium, hoping for a good result following their disastrous qualifying campaign for this year’s World Cup in Qatar.

Roberto Mancini’s side defeated England in the final on penalties after a 1-1 draw with the Three Lions after 120 minutes as Leonardo Bonnuci’s second-half goal cancelled out Luke Shaw’s early opener.

However, fast forward to 24th March and Roberto Mancini’s side were knocked out of World Cup qualifying by North Macedonia following a 92nd-minute strike from Aleksandar Trajkovski.

In truth, Italy should’ve won a qualifying group consisting of Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria and Lithuania, but, instead, they managed four wins and four draws, putting themselves within danger of not playing at the World Cup Finals since the tournament in Brazil back in 2014.

This will be Italy’s best chance of getting some solace for their World Cup failure due to the Nations League finals being played well after the tournament in Qatar between November and December this year.

Italy and Argentina are two of the most decorated nations in international football with six World Cup wins between them, with the former boasting four of them.

They have played against one another 16 times, with Italy losing just one of the first 12 encounters, with that anomaly being all the way back in 1956. However, Argentina have managed to win each of the last four fixtures between these two.

The last four meetings have spanned between July 1990 in the Italian World Cup where Argentina defeated the hosts 4-3 on penalties in the semi-finals following a second-half equaliser from Claudio Caniggia in normal time to cancel out Salvatore Schillaci’s 18th-minute opener.

Meanwhile, two of the latter three matches took place in February 2001 and August 2014 when Argentina emerged as 2-1 victors on both occasions, whilst the most recent encounter was in March 2018 as Ever Banega and Manuel Lanzini both fired in goals in the last 15 minutes of the match to seal then-manager Jorge Sampaoli’s side an impressive victory.