SINGAPORE — Emotions have been running high in the wake of the World Cup's blazing final match between France and Argentina on Sunday (Dec 18) night.

Between French forward Kylian Mbappe's phenomenal hat trick — the first in a World Cup final since 1966 — and Argentinian keeper Emiliano Martinez's spectacular save in the 123rd minute, football fans all over the world were truly kept on the edge of their seats.

And it was certainly no different here in Singapore, where droves of fans turned up at sports bars and community centres to catch the showdown of the year.

Even for football fans who have been following the World Cup for years, such as property agent David Boon, 49, "it's the most unanticipated, hard to believe" match.

Speaking to TODAY, he added: "The momentum of the game was up and down, like a roller coaster".

A 22-year-old student who gave his name as just Ken said: "(You don't usually) have an even game with a lot of goals scored in the World Cup final."

"It's just the constant comebacks, like, you don't know (what will happen).

"It was intense, I was on the edge of the seat each time (there were) opportunities, straight up to extra time."

Likewise, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, who has been watching the World Cup finals since its first live telecast in 1974, called Sunday's final match "one of the best if not the best" he had seen.

"It had everything," he wrote in a Facebook post on Monday. "Goals, excitement, ebbing and flowing of fortunes, and both could have won."

Indeed, non-fans found themselves getting caught up in the excitement as well.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Mr Baey Yam Keng, Member of Parliament for Tampines Group Representation Constituency, said that he "discovered the joy of watching (football) with a passionate crowd" at Our Tampines Hub.

"Looks like most Tampines residents are Argentina supporters 👏", he wrote.

A Singaporean TikTok user said that he was "not a football fan, but had to check out (his community club) at 2am".

It looked like even the busiest celebrities managed to free up their schedules for the game. Singaporean singer JJ Lin — in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for his "JJ20" World Tour — was spotted celebrating Mbappe's hat trick with K-pop star Jackson Wang at a cosy private party.

The duo also surprised guests watching JJ's show at Bukit Jalil National Stadium on Sunday with an unexpected performance of their 2020 single, Should've Let Go.

As they say, football brings people together. Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin, taking a flight from Italy back to Singapore, shared a snap of one considerate passenger on the plane who held his phone out for others seated behind him to watch the live broadcast.

And, of course, there were those eager to see if their predictions would come true, such as Joakim Gomez. In an Instagram Story posted nine weeks ago, the Mediacorp 987 deejay had picked Argentina as his World Cup 2022 winner.

He even put his money where his mouth was, showing off a betting slip for Argentina placed more than a month ago, before the matches in Qatar began.

On Monday, Joakim celebrated his own "hat trick" of accurately picking the last three World Cup winners "way before the respective year's tournament began".

Fuelled by his success, the self-professed "football romantic" has already selected his World Cup 2026 winner — England. Whether this prediction will come true remains to be seen.

MESSI, THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME?

Whether they support France or Argentina, fans agreed that Sunday's match was a spectacular show of the world's favourite sport. And more than a handful had an extra soft spot for Lionel Messi.

Since Sunday's game, the football great's name has not dropped from Twitter's top trends, along with "Goat" — a slang term for "greatest of all time".

With a World Cup victory being the only gap on his CV and this championship possibly being his last, the 35-year-old had a great deal riding on this game — and so did his fans.

Singapore YouTuber JianHao Tan said in an Instagram Story before the match on Sunday that his "mental health depended on Messi winning the World Cup".

Earlier in the semi-finals, Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming apparently injured his neck because he got too excited watching his idol Messi.

Jade Rasif, a deejay and social media personality, did a deejaying set for the World Cup-final watch party at Resorts World Sentosa.

She also posted an Instagram Story of a little boy kicking a football, with the caption: "So glad I named him Messi ❤️".

Though she has been open about her single-mum journey since giving birth in 2018, her son's name has not yet been revealed to the public.

It's not clear if the photo of the boy she shared on Instagram is that of her son.

Mediacorp's veteran artiste Zoe Tay celebrated Messi's historic win in an Instagram post on Monday, saying that the final had been "just like a roller coaster".

Writing in Chinese, she cheered: "(The) god of football finally won the World Cup 🇦🇷🙌🏻👏🏻".

For student Ken who spoke to TODAY earlier and has been watching World Cup matches since 2010, he joked: "You rarely see (Messi) run on the pitch... Sometimes, it's like this old man just walking around. (But) he still fits into this niche playmaker role.

"I'd say he's the greatest (football) player of my time." ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SAMUEL NG