‘Argentina were a DISGRACE!’ Spain win the World Cup with 1-0 win in 2026 final | ESPN FC

These were the scenes in Zaragoza as Spain defeat Argentina by one goal to nil to claim their second ever World Cup title. Hello and welcome in to the latest edition of ESPN FC. I'm Dan Thomas joined by Craig Burley, Steve McManaman and Frank Leboeuf in one of the worst World Cup finals we have ever seen. Spain in the end deservedly get the victory and defeat Argentina. It was Ferran Torres's well-taken goal that proved to be the difference between the two sides. Look at that right-hand column. Two shots from Argentina, none in regular time. Both of those came in extra time and so Fernandez sent off Spain with the victory as they lift the title and get a second star on their shirt. We're supposed to be objective on this show but I don't think anyone unless you're an Argentina supporter will be more pleased than what we saw Spain lifting the World Cup because goodness me that was embarrassing from the defending champions wasn't it? I'd go as far as to say Argentina were a complete and utter disgrace today. Both with their performance and their antics. We expected the antics, we expected the thuggery, we expected the off the ball stuff but we also expected a lot more on the ball, a lot more purpose, a lot more about their play. They were an utter shambles, they were disgusting, disgraceful. I'm so pleased Spain won and I could just see a scenario at the end there but before Spain scored that it was going to go to penalties or they were going to get a scruffy goal Argentina and win this and Spain tried, they tried to make it a good game, they tried to get over the line, the finishing wasn't quite great. Martinez made a lot of saves but they were comfortable saves but we know Argentina are not the greatest side they've ever been but to put that kind of performance in a World Cup final, that negative, it was a disgusting performance. We were talking before the game that the final of the World Cup was the biggest game ever and we have been presented, we saw that game and in fact it was a bad image of football. It was everything that's bad with the game. Exactly, we showed the worst of the worst, well they showed the worst of the worst, congratulations to Spain and there is nothing to say about Spain because they tried but it's impossible to play and I have to include the referee at some point, you know, Paredes came on half time, after 15 minutes he should have been sent off because he came just to put the mess in the middle of the park and they didn't try to play. As Craig said, we were ready for that, the dirty part of their football but we were expecting something else and we didn't have that. So it was completely negative and that's unbearable for me and the football is different. The way I see the football and I was a defender is absolutely different to what I saw today. It was a shame, it was a bad image of football and after the 1990 final, Argentina again against Germany was the worst of the worst. No, no, we found the worst, this one. Yeah, I concur with everybody, I hated the Argentina performance. There's this thing where they'll do anything to get a victory and, you know, they'll try tricks and the dark arts, etc, etc. We've heard it and heard it and heard it but it's a really bad image for them, isn't it? You know, it doesn't look good, it doesn't look great. You're talking about, you know, arguably the greatest player in the world yet his teammates act as if, you know, they're not interested in football, they just want to do anything else apart from win a football match. They'll just do it by fair means or foul, they'll kick, they'll punch, they'll drag, they'll dive, they'll do anything. I mean, we went crazy over Paraguay's performance against France. That was worse, that was awful today and as you said, in the biggest game in the world, the eyes of the nation, the eyes of the whole universe looking at this game and you're subjected to that where, as you said, if you're a neutral, all you're praying for is, you know what, I hope Spain score. I hope Spain score and then let's finish this game and get it over with and then after the end of the game, we're all sitting there going, I bet Argentina cause chaos after the game. I bet they're going to be pushing and pulling and fighting and of course that happens as well off camera, you know, and it's just, I mean, I'm glad the result's gone. Argentina were awful, awful and I thought their performance today was terrible and they up the lamb bastard for it. In Argentina, they'll probably go down as warriors, as heroes, but that type of performance has not become of a team like that. I've noticed New York or New Jersey in this instance. New York, New Jersey. New Jersey, New York. I think it typified FIFA wanted the game here. They played in the worst stadium, probably out the lot, on the worst pitch, at a terrible time really for the US here, but it was maybe better around the world at three o'clock, but it was much better arenas during this World Cup that they could have, they should have known beforehand that would have been more seductive to a better atmosphere and a better game of football. Now Argentina might have spoiled that still, but the pitch as well didn't help the Spanish who tried to play. So they got that wrong, albeit it's, you know, it's New York, so I get that, but I think there's a lot of people out there that do think FIFA wanted Argentina to win this thing. Infantino wanted a story, he wanted Messi to go back to back and people have been doing stuff on social media and all that and sort of laughing about it, half joking and half serious and that's kind of how it felt at times, but I liked what they did in terms of, not the way they played, I liked, and I said this in the show before the final, I liked the guts and coming back in the fight and yeah, a lot of it was on England and other teams. I liked how they had that spirit and that quality in the last 20 minutes of games and that's why I felt that we were going to see some similar out today, but we just saw the complete opposite. If you thought England were negative for 35 minutes and Thomas Tuchel got battered for them going out, they were negative for until, what, the last 10 minutes of extra time, 90 odd minutes of normal time plus injury time of complete negativity. 100th minute was the first shot. How can you not, with players that have won World Cups and won Champions Leagues and playing all over Europe, most of them, on huge salaries because they're playing at the top teams, not muster one effort in, what did you say, 100 minutes? 100 minutes. Not one effort in a World Cup final, not even from 25 yards, not even speculative, nothing, crossing the box ahead, nothing, nothing and those players and Enzo Fernandes, he's another disgrace, he's not got a brain in his head, he's on a yellow card and he jumps in and he complains, the usual, it's everybody else's fault, no, it's your fault. And on top of it, he wants you to see the review when he doesn't even know the rules. Review for a second yellow card. Yeah, it's stupid. But that typified the mindset. Every Argentinian player, probably Messi apart, two people that come out, two Argentinians that have got a bit of class, Messi for the most part and Scoloni, the manager, who's in the sidelines for the most part, he's calm and at the end he came on, he hugged De La Fuentes, congratulated him and he was trying to keep his players away and the Spanish players away because he knew it was a bit of a powder keg situation. They're the only two really that have carried themselves with any class. The rest of those Argentinian players today tried every trick under the sun to get Spanish players sent off and this, that and the next thing. They did everything but what they should have done, which was play the game. How do you feel if you're an Argentinian player in the dressing room after this? Well, they'll be fine because we've seen them do that all the time. That's part of their culture. You know what, it doesn't make it right though. I get this part of the culture to fight and scrap and do everything you can to win a game but that's not football, is it? Yeah, but they will think that they've been robbed, maybe. They won't take full responsibility. They'll blame somebody. They blame somebody. The thing is, since I saw the French Paraguay game where Paraguay supposedly didn't have any other tools but playing like that, then people were saying, well, that's comedy ball. Yeah, but there is a time where you have to change the way of playing football. I mean, that's so sad that you have so many talented players in South America that comedy ball is supposedly only games like that. So, can you be wrong at a certain time? Can you maybe try to change something? Is it possible? Because that's awful. That's simply awful. That's not the way you should play the football. That shouldn't be the way you think of football and you respect the football. And you can be strong, sometimes a little bit tricky because it's part of the game. But to only have that system in your mind, that's really appalling. For instance, Brazil don't have the same thought pattern as Argentina, do they? Maybe Uruguay, I'm not entirely sure. Or some games in Copa America, you see a really bad, lots of fouls and stuff. But Brazil are not acting like that. So, they want to win games the correct way. They'll fight and they'll get tackled in. It's a different style of Brazil now because they haven't got the players of yesteryear. But still, nobody really resorts to what Argentina have done or Paraguay have done. We get that there's a golfing class between France and Paraguay and you have to level it to a certain extent. But you can run and you can be aggressive without going over the top all the time, without effectively cheating constantly. Because that's effectively what it is. Little touch, dive on the floor. Even the disallowed goal, stand on Otamendi's foot. It was as if somebody shot him from the crowd. It was an accidental stand on his toe. There's more. Contact goes on at every single corner, which nobody bats an eyelid about. Everybody's pulling and pushing and not watching the ball and shoving. Yet, a little touch on his foot, an accidental stand and it goes flying in the air. It's just that's effectively cheating.