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Julián Álvarez evokes Argentina’s spirit of Kempes and can resurrect old glories | Jonathan Wilson

Before Sunday’s World Cup final, the striker has become part of a proud lineage who broke cover on the biggest stage

The oddity of this Argentina side is that it arrived in Qatar having gone 36 games unbeaten and yet has still found itself making it up as it went along. For once there seemed no questions about selection. There were few doubts about how Argentina should play or who should play up front with Lionel Messi, even after the injury to Giovani Lo Celso. There was a sense of stability and a quiet confidence. They had won the Copa América last year. There was no need to change anything. Then they lost to Saudi Arabia.

Argentina are habitually poor starters at World Cups. In 40 years their only really impressive opening performance was the 4-0 win over Greece in 1994 and that culminated in Diego Maradona failing the drug test that would end his international career.

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