One of the most historic matchups in World Football took place in the 2026 World Cup semifinals as England and Argentina met for the right to reach the tournament Final. These two have a heated history in knockout games and world politics, and now, in 2026, the two teams that represent their nations took the field against one another.
Coming into this semifinal, England had won five of six games, drawing the one game they didn't win. They scored 14 goals in those games. Once they hit the knockout rounds, they seemed like a team of destiny, getting dramatic late winners in those three win-or-go-home games. Now they'd look to do that against the reigning World Champions, Argentina.
Argentina has been perfect at the 2026 World Cup. In the group stage, they won all three matches, scoring eight goals and conceding just once. The knockout rounds were much more of a test; they needed 120 minutes to beat Cape Verde, an improbable comeback against Egypt, and more extra time to best Switzerland. Against England lay their biggest test; could they pass it and make the final?
England came out in a 4-2-3-1, with some personnel changes from their quarterfinal win over Norway. This is a team organized by manager Thomas Tuchel to be defensively sound, with speed on the wings and two superstars central to the attack. Against Argentina, they'd need all of that preparation to play out.
Argentina uses the classic flat 4-4-2 formation. Their identity is all about suffering, enduring, and overcoming. Lionel Scaloni's side counter-presses their opposition to create counter-attacks to find their talisman, Messi. He exerts little energy until it's time to go in for the kill and creates attacks. He would loom large over this memorable matchup.
This game has a history, with knockout games in 1986 and 1998, after the nations fought a literal war over the Falklands in the early 80s. There's still a lot of bad blood between the two that played out on the pitch, especially in the first half.
The first 45 minutes of this World Cup game will be remembered for the fight that it was. Old school tackles through players flew from both teams, setting the physical tone. There were 19 fouls in the first half, and just three shots. England had a 0.05 XG, while Argentina had 0.02 expected goals. There was not much that happened in this half as the teams were more interested in stopping the other from getting in a rhythm. In other words, they were both scared. This heavily favored Argentina as the game moved to the second half.
The second half began with more angst leftover from the first half. That would all change in the 55th minute. Kane dropped deep into his own half, then played Rodgers down the right wing. He ran with the ball and crossed it through the box to a streaking Gordon, who was first to the ball. He placed a cushioned shot home, and England had the lead. Directly after the goal, England decided to sit in and defend for their lives. This gave Argentina room in wide areas to create chances.
For the next half hour, Argentina had attack after attack but failed to score, then, with five minutes left in the 90, that changed. Messi had drifted out to the right wing for most of the second half to turn into a provider for his team. In the 85th minute, he drew defenders to him, then found Fernández, who shot a long-range banger past Pickford to tie it at 1-1.
England was rocked by the goal, but had subbed in many of their attackers for defenders before conceding. Now they had five minutes plus nine minutes of stoppage time to keep Argentina from getting a second; it didn't take the reigning champs long to get a go-ahead goal. Messi made another great move on the right wing and crossed the ball to the opposite corner of the six-yard box with his non-dominant foot to find the head of Martínez. It was 2-1 Argentina with seven minutes of stoppage time still to go, and England found no equalizer. Argentina moved on to the World Cup final for the second tournament in a row.
Argentina looks like a team of destiny yet again. They suffer and look like not that good of a team for 80 minutes, then look like world-beaters in the last 10. Will that be good enough to best Spain and win back-to-back World Cups? England really bottled this match. The blame lies mainly with their German head coach. Tuchel was brought in to get over the semifinal hump that Southgate couldn't, but when his team took the lead, they bunkered down and folded late. Now they get a meaningless third-place game against France to try and right any wrongs
The World Cup Final is set! Number two-ranked Spain takes on top-ranked Argentina; we get the "Finalissima" for the title of World champions! The Finalissima is a match between the European (Euros) champions and the CONMEBOL (Copa America) champions.
It is usually a match that happens in the final FIFA international window before the World Cup. These two nations were meant to play in Qatar in this very match back in March, but it was canceled thanks to unrest in the region. Now we get it in the final of the World Cup.
The teams that fell in the semifinals, England and France, get to play in the most agonizingly meaningless game: the World Cup third-place match. That will take place on Saturday as the precursor to Sunday's World Cup Final. There are just two matches left at the 2026 World Cup; tune in for the culmination!
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France |
Saturday, |
Hard Rock Stadium, Miami |
Fox, Fox One, Peacock, Telemundo, Universo |
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Spain |
Sunday, |
MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford |
Fox, Fox One, Peacock, Telemundo, Universo, TeleXitos |
MORE: Philly Sports Network's World Cup Coverage
