FIFA World Cup 2022: Who will referee Argentina vs France final today?
Szymon Marciniak will be in charge of proceedings tonight. In the final, he will be among familiar faces as he has already refereed matches involving Argentina and France at this World Cup.
He is all set for the FIFA World Cup 2022 final as Argentina faces defending champions France at the Lucille Stadium on Sunday. The match will start at 8:30 am IST (IST).
While Didier Deschamps' France will look to become the third team in history to win back-to-back World Cup titles, Lionel Scaloni's Argentina will be looking for their first title since winning the game's biggest event in 1986.
France and Argentina both lost one match each in the group stage but was outstanding en route to the final, with Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi inspiring their teams to impressive victories.
Argentina qualified for the final after a comprehensive 3–0 win over Croatia in the semi-finals, while France reached their second consecutive final with a 2–0 win over Morocco.
Before Sunday's final, the South American and European giants had played each other 12 times, with Argentina beating France 6-3 head-to-head. The remaining three matches were drawn. Their most recent meeting was at the World Cup in Russia when France beat Argentina 4-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
Szymon Marciniak will be in charge of proceedings tonight. In the final, he will be among the familiar faces as he has already officiated matches involving Argentina and France in this World Cup.
Who is Marciniak?
A 41-year-old Polish referee. He has experience officiating matches in the Euro Cup, UEFA Champions League, Ekstraklasa - Poland's top division - and the FIFA World Cup.
Marciniak joined the FIFA panel at the age of 30 in 2011 when he refereed Europa League matches. He took charge of his first Champions League match in 2012 and made his international debut at Euro 2016.
This is Marciniak's second World Cup, and he is known to run matches with an iron fist. In the 2018 World Cup, he officiated two matches. This will be his third match in Qatar World Cup. He oversaw the Group D matches between France and Denmark and Argentina vs Australia in the pre-quarterfinals. In those two matches, he booked five players as both finalists Argentina and France won 2–1.
In the Champions League this year, he officiated three matches - Dinamo Zagreb v AC Milan, Barcelona v Inter Milan and Marseille v Tottenham Hotspur - and booked 11 players.
In the past, he criticized former Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel after they lost to Premier League side Real Madrid in the Champions League last season. Tuchel accused Marciniak of 'having a good time' with Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti.
Marciniak will be assisted by his Polish compatriots Pawel Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz, while USA's Ismail Elfath will be the fourth official. The VAR official for this match, Tomas Kwiatkowski, is also a Polish citizen.
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Match officials for
Argentina vs France FIFA World Cup 2022 final Referee: Szymon
Marciniak (Poland) |
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Assistant Referees:
Pawel Sokolnicki (Poland) and Tomasz Listkiewicz (Poland) |
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Fourth Official: Ismail
Elfath (USA) |
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Video Assistant
Referee: Tomasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) |
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Assistant Video
Assistant Referee: Juan Soto (Venezuela) |
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Offside Video Assistant
Referee: Kyle Atkins (USA) |
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Support Video Assistant
Referee: Fernando Guerrero (MEX) |