But the mural was completed by the time Messi and the Argentines arrived from Moscow on Friday, and now the French will try to prevent Messi from creating any masterworks of his own in Kazan Arena.

“Messi is Messi,” said Didier Deschamps, the French coach, who was the captain of the the team that won the 1998 World Cup. “You only have to look at his statistics: 65 goals in 127 matches. That says it all. In absolute terms, the ideal is to neutralize him, but we all know that he is capable with very little to make the difference.”

The teams have not played each other in the World Cup since 1978, when Argentina won, 2-1, in the group phase on its way to the title. The teams last played in a friendly in February 2009 in Marseilles.

Messi, then just 21, was in the starting lineup for that game, a 2-0 victory. None of France’s current field players can say the same. But then the French have an exceptionally youthful team, which means that for some of them, this will be their first opportunity to see Messi’s skills in person as opposed to watching him on television with his club team, Barcelona.

“Against Argentina, we’ll have to be at our highest level,” said Hugo Lloris, the French captain and goalkeeper. “You can study the opponent and their three matches, and that helps give us indications. But we also know Messi can lift his level and decide the outcome, as he is accustomed to doing with Argentina but also with Barcelona.”