2026 World Cup: Semifinal - England vs Argentina

Today we had the second of our two Semifinals with England taking on Argentina. After a dominant Spain win over France yesterday, I was hoping we'd get a better game today. There's a lot of history between England and Argentina on the field, most notably the infamous "Hand of God" goal scored by Diego Maradona against England in the Quarterfinals at the 1986 World Cup. Argentina went on to win that game 2-1. Foreshadowing?

Argentina 2-1 England

What a classic that just was. It was a combative game right from the start. Referee Ismail Elfath did a good job controlling it early but there were hard tackles flying in from both teams. The first half saw very little in an attacking sense from either side with England and Argentina combining for 3 shots (zero on target) and 0.08xG. Not exactly "the beautiful game" that we all know and love.

The action picked up in the second half and England went ahead in the 55th minute. Morgan Rogers sent in a brilliant cross from the right wing and Anthony Gordon did well to adjust his body and get his foot to it to place it in the back of the net. Rogers certainly justified Thomas Tuchel's choice to give him the start on the right over the more natural wide players at England's disposal. Less than three minutes later, Argentina nearly struck back. Giuliano Simeone looked to be through on goal but Djed Spence recovered and made a perfectly timed slide tackle to extinguish the danger. Then in the 69th minute, they came close again but Jordan Pickford got down quickly to make a fantastic save on a header from Nico Gonzalez.

The real turning point in the game was when Ezri Konsa came on for Anthony Gordon in the 72nd minute. It marked a change in formation from more of a 4-2-3-1 to a 5-4-1. The five at the back was an attempt by Tuchel to try to grind out a win similar to how a 10-men England did in the Round of 16 against Mexico. Needless to say, it didn't work. England invited pressure and Argentina took advantage by bringing on more attacking players and getting cross after cross into England's box. It felt like it was only a matter of time before Argentina would get a breakthrough and it would end up coming in the 85th minute. The ball made it's way to Lionel Messi out wide on the right and he drew multiple defenders before getting the ball to Enzo Fernandez. Fernandez had the time to set himself up for a shot from just outside the box and he fired it past a diving Pickford. After the goal, England kept defending their box and it looked like they were just hoping to get the game to extra time. But it wasn't to be. Lautaro Martinez got on the end of a Messi cross just a couple minutes into stoppage time to give Argentina the 2-1 lead. England did bring on Marcus Rashford and Ivan Toney in a last-ditch attempt to tie the game but they never really came close to doing it. Argentina are on their way to the final to meet Spain.

I'm going to touch on Argentina first because I have a little bit more to say about England. Argentina and Messi are just inevitable. It doesn't matter how the game is going, Messi is going to make a difference in the end. There's been a lot of talk (from myself especially) about Argentina's path to the final and how it wasn't exactly a tough set of games on paper until this Semifinal. But you still have to give them credit. This team is on a remarkable run in recent years under Lionel Scaloni.

And now for England. Their exit reminded me of France yesterday. I wrote in that blog about how France going out in the Semifinal wouldn't have been a massive letdown but the way it happened was. That's exactly how I feel about England. They went defensive too early. I understand that after their goal, Argentina were putting them under increased pressure. But they gave Argentina 20 minutes to just continue to keep the ball in the attacking third. You just can't do that against this Argentina team. England couldn't find a way out of their own half and that's what ended up being their downfall.

The World Cup Final is set. Spain vs Argentina on Sunday at 3pm Eastern. Before that, we'll have England vs France in a third place game on Saturday. Something tells me neither team will really be up for that one. I'm not going to make any predictions here, as there may be another blog to come before the Final. Don't hold me to it though. Regardless, I'll be back here for at least one more blog. See you then!