Ferran Torres came on in the sixty second minute, having been criticised for the entire tournament, and scored the goal that won the World Cup. Pedro Porro lifted it to the back post, Nico Williams beat Nahuel Molina to the header and nodded it back across, Emiliano Martinez had already committed, and Torres hit it first time from eight yards. A substitute assisted by a substitute, one hundred and six minutes in, and Spain had their second star.

The numbers here are close to absurd. Spain had twenty shots and twelve on target. Argentina had two shots and none on target, and their first attempt of the entire match arrived on a hundred and seventeen minutes, a Messi effort that was blocked. Sixty five percent possession to thirty five. Expected goals of 1.94 against 0.20. Argentina, a team averaging sixty one percent possession across the tournament, registered zero corners and zero touches in the Spanish box in normal time. Spain did not so much beat them as slowly remove the oxygen from the room.

And then there is Emiliano Martinez, who made eleven saves, the most anyone has managed in a World Cup final, beating a mark set in 1994 the last time the game was played on American soil. He tipped a Nico Williams header away at ninety three, got two hands to a swerving Yamal free kick at ninety plus two that was going in, and lost anyway, beaten by the single shot he had guessed wrong on. Meanwhile Unai Simon won the Golden Glove having faced no shots on target all afternoon. There is no justice in football, only clean sheets.