Two late goals in 6 1/2 minutes gave Lionel Messi and Argentina a hard-fought, physical victory over England on July 15 in Atlanta. A crowd of nearly 70,000 fans is left in tears of joy and remorse as the chance of the first back-to-back World Cup champions since 1962 remains alive.
Decades worth of bad blood between these two nations—which included an outright war over the Falkland Islands—was on immediate display. Neither side gave any quarter to the other’s anthem, and the first half ended with 45 minutes of no goals, three combined shots, and 19 combined fouls, including a yellow card for each team.
England struck first at 10 minutes into the second half on an attack from Declan Rice to Morgan Rogers and finally to Anthony Gordon, who netted his first-ever World Cup goal.
The Three Lions would hold that lead past the 80th minute, with goalkeeper Jordan Pickford notching four saves and his teammates blocking two more before getting to him.
England’s goal scorers Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham had their chances, but were ultimately shut down by Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez.
After they scored a goal, England appeared to begin prioritizing defending their one-goal lead instead of pushing to extend it, as head coach Thomas Tuchel chose to use three of his substitutions to replace Gordon, a forward, and Rice, a midfielder, with two defenders midway through the second half.
Argentina, meanwhile, pressed up their attack by replacing defender Nicolás Tagliafico with forward Lautaro Martínez, and the Selección found the back of the net twice in less than seven minutes. The first cam off the foot of Enzo Fernández from just outside the penalty box at 85 minutes, and the second from a header by Martínez two minutes into stoppage time. Both goals came off of assists from Messi.
Those two assists put Messi back in the lead for his first-ever Golden Boot award, which is given to the top goal scorer of the tournament. The 39-year-old now has eight goals and four assists this tournament, topping France’s Kylian Mbappé’s eight goals and three assists.
The defending World Cup champions achieved the victory in their dark blue away jerseys they specifically requested to wear. A variant of those away jerseys were worn by Diego Maradona’s Argentina team when they beat England in the 1986 World Cup.
They also bested their opponents in earned fouls. Argentina earned a total of 15 fouls across the 90 minutes, including three yellow cards. England notched 11 fouls, including one yellow card. But reactions from the fans and the benches of both sides argued that even more fouls and cards should have been called.
Argentina will face Spain in the tournament’s final match on July 19 outside of New York City.
England, meanwhile, will head down to Miami to face France in a third-place playoff on July 18.
It was England’s fourth appearance in a World Cup semifinal match. The only time they appeared in a World Cup final was in 1966 when they won their one and only championship as the host nation.
“We’re close,” Kane said in a post-game interview. “We just need to find that missing piece in the final stage of the tournament.
“You know, these tournaments take it out of you, with so much effort and pressure and mentality, and we showed a lot of that,” he added. “But yeah, we’re just missing that final piece.”
