Football 1 Felons 0. It took extra-time to get there but, thank goodness, the sport prevailed. Spain won the World Cup and we are all better for that. Football is better for that. It needed Spain to win this final.

For all of Lionel Messi’s brilliance, his biggest contribution in this final was to try and get Spain’s Marc Cucurella sent off for covering his mouth in retribution after Enzo Fernandez was rightly dismissed in the added time of normal time.

Messi and Argentina deserved nothing because they did nothing as they became the first World Cup finalists not even to have a shot in normal time. Nothing apart from foul and foul and foul. In the first-half they had more fouls – nine – than passes in the final third of the pitch – eight. This was nasty, depressing anti-football. And it got what it deserved.

The goal came in the second period of extra-time with Spain’s brilliant winger, Nico Williams, who should have started, heading back a Pedro Porro cross for another replacement, Ferran Torres, to lash high into the net. What a relief.

Spain should have won far more comfortably but the European champions lived up to the claim made by their coach Luis de la Fuente and proved they are the best team in the world as they won this tournament for the second time and for the first since 2010.