Steve McManaman Predicts Spain Will Defeat Argentina in World Cup Final
Spain against Argentina. New York under the lights. A World Cup final with nearly six decades of history humming in the background – and Steve McManaman thinks it won’t even be close.
The former Liverpool and Real Madrid winger, now on duty with ESPN FC, has nailed his colours firmly to the Spanish mast. No cagey contest. No nervy extra time. He sees Luis de la Fuente’s side strolling to the trophy.
“I’m going 3-1 to Spain. I’ll be nice and concise,” he said, offering a scoreline and nothing more, a prediction as brisk as it was bold.
Spain’s Statement in Dallas
Spain arrive at this final with the swagger of a team that knows exactly who it is. In Dallas on Tuesday, they brushed aside tournament favourites France 2-0, a semi-final that felt like a changing of the guard as much as a last-four tie.
They didn’t just beat the 2018 world champions. They controlled them. They pushed them back, pressed them into errors, and looked every inch the reigning European champions chasing a first World Cup crown since 2010 and only their second in history.
That performance, more than the scoreline, explains McManaman’s confidence. Spain look sharp, organised, and ruthless enough to turn dominance into damage. For a pundit who has seen elite dressing rooms up close, this is a team that resembles a champion.
Argentina’s Late-Show Specialists
Argentina, though, have carved a very different path to New York.
Their semi-final in Dallas was chaos of another kind. Chasing the game against Euro 2024 finalists England, they were staring at the exit door with minutes left. Then came the familiar surge of defiance. Two goals in the final five minutes plus stoppage time flipped a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win and a seventh victory of the tournament.
It was classic Argentina: backs to the wall, spirit undimmed, belief bordering on stubbornness. They do not go quietly. They rarely do.
That resilience has carried La Albiceleste through generations. It was there in 1966, the only previous World Cup meeting between these nations, when Argentina beat Spain 2-1 in a Group 2 clash in England to reach the quarter-finals. They fell narrowly then to the eventual champions, England, but left a mark Spain have not forgotten.
Chasing History – and Revenge
McManaman is convinced that history will matter in New York. De la Fuente’s squad, he believes, will not treat this as just another final. The memory of that 1966 defeat, distant though it is, lingers as a small but sharp detail in the backdrop.
This final also carries a sense of unfinished business. Spain and Argentina were due to meet in the Finalissima in March, a glamour showdown that promised a preview of exactly this kind of occasion. It never happened. The match was cancelled for a variety of reasons, the storyline put on hold.
Now there is no postponement, no escape route, no next time. Just one game in New York, one trophy, and a prediction from a former great that Spain will win it with room to spare.
Argentina know how to suffer. Spain know how to suffocate. Only one of those identities will define the night.
