England 1-2 Argentina: World Cup 2026 semi-final - as it happened

Key events

Right, it’s time to wrap this thing up and head to bed. I’ll leave you with David Hytner’s report and Jacob Steinberg’s analysis from Atlanta, where England ran out of steam in excruciating fashion and were deservedly beaten by Messi’s mentality monsters.

Congratulations to Argentina, who will play Spain in Sunday’s final after achieving something truly remarkable: a World Cup victory over England that brooked no argument. Goodnight!

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Updated at 19.05 EDT

I’m still reeling from this stat. In the 37 minutes between Anthony Gordon’s goal and Lautaro Martinez’s winner, England had 12% possession.

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“I want to applaud the English players, not criticise them,” says Kári Tulinius. “They were the better side, until about the last drinks break. I don’t really feel sorry for them either, with maybe the exception of Jude Bellingham. No Englishman has had as glorious a World Cup this century, not since Paul Gascoigne in 1990, but I fear that the memory of his heroics will be swept under by the narrative. They lost a tight semifinal against a good team, it was neither a disaster nor a capitulation, and their journey to this match shouldn’t be forgotten.”

I agree with the broad sentiment, but Bellingham picked a bad night to play like a 23-year-old. Timing is everything: had Argentina gone 2-1 up with 10 minutes to go, maybe Bellingham would have willed an equaliser. Instead, he and Harry Kane were basically spectators for the last 20 or 30 minutes.

It’s tough; there are dozens of variables in any football match and on this occasion, for whatever reason, Bellingham and Kane left almost no trace. I think this’ll hurt more than the Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain.

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Updated at 18.46 EDT

“Listen, it’s not new or interesting and I hate myself for saying it but my God, Messi was good,” writes Niall Mullen. “He could receive the ball with no space, at other times he found where the space was, and, along with all his other qualities, showed that he is an unbelievable crosser of the ball as well.

With his right foot as well. Joe Hart made an excellent point on the BBC coverage about how cold he was, even when Argentina were six minutes (plus added time) from going out. In a wildly emotional game, he was somehow able to detach himself.

I’d like to watch the last half hour again but at times it felt like Messi was running the game from the right wing. That shouldn’t be possible.

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Updated at 18.48 EDT

Dan Burn talks to BBC Sport

double quotation markAbsolutely gutted. I thought we had the gameplan pretty well for the majority of it. But obviously, when we scored, we went a bit passive and dropped off and were ultimately punished for it. Disappointing from us. We have defended games better and seen them out. When you get that close to the World Cup final, that hurts.

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England have become the nearly men of world football. In the last five major tournaments they’ve lost two finals, two semi-finals and a quarter-final. That’s preferable to being utter bobbins, as England were for much of the preceding decade, but it’s a still label that no team wants.

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Lautaro Martinez's reaction

double quotation markThis is really emotional. The first time my dad bought ​me a pair of boots, I always dreamed of scoring this goal. It ​was really tough today. Enzo scored a brilliant goal and I’m confident this ​team is continuing to show what it’s made of.

England got tired. They pressed for 60 minutes and then just ran out of steam. They got their goal and then sat back. That gave us more composure to move the ball around and stretch the pitch.

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Updated at 18.27 EDT

Lionel Scaloni's reaction

double quotation markWe are truly unique, and that’s not arrogance. From the bottom of my heart, ‌these players led us to victory. I’m lost for words. A joy for our country, for our people.

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“The first goal came from a short corner that Argentina had already tried a few times,” says Matt Dony. “The moment the ball left Messi’s boot from the quadrant, someone should have been haring out to him. They’d didn’t learn. The second goal involved Messi doing his standing-still-in-an-acre-of-space thing.

“I mean, I know he’s quite good at it, but surely defenders keep an eye out for him. Yes, the substitutions seemed worryingly passive, but both of those goals involved lapses from players. They should have been better.”

Send them home.

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Updated at 18.26 EDT

We’ve had a couple of emails suggesting Lionel Messi fouled Djed Spence just before the winning goal. He seemed to accidentally catch Spence on the shin before running to retrieve the ball, and it impacted the play because Spence was unable to get out to challenge Messi. But there were no complaints from the England players. I guess it was, in the parlance of our times, a coming together.

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“England went out having brought a star player who wasn’t fully fit, a young player who never played and was never going to, and having been unable display any control over a game in the latter stages of the tournament,” writes Niall Mullen. “In this crazy messed up world it’s good to know some things don’t change.”

Talking of taking young players who were never going to play, Theo Walcott is younger than Lionel Messi. Did Thomas Tuchel miss a trick?

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Updated at 18.48 EDT

“At 34, this is the first tournament exit that has left me with the feeling of time running out,” writes Edan Tal. “Any advice on how to cope for the next few deep defensive concessions?”

Watch the England cricket team instead. They run towards the danger, and everyone loves them for their intrepid appr-oh.

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The Argentina players celebrated their World Cup win over England with a banner saying “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”, making reference to the 1982 Falklands war.

Argentina were 1-0 down with five minutes to go of the semi-final in Atlanta but rallied and scored twice in quick succession to reach a second straight World Cup final, where they will face Spain in New Jersey on Sunday.

The banner refers to the 74-day conflict 44 years ago when Argentina and the UK fought over the territory, which is referred to as the Falkland Islands in Britain and Islas Malvinas in Argentina. More than 900 people – 649 Argentinians and 255 Britons – lost their lives in the conflict.

Lisandro Martinez and Giovani Lo Celso held up the banner, grinning, and waved to fans in the stands. It was ⁠unclear where the banner had come from.

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We’re hearing unconfirmed reports that Thomas Tuchel is a German.

Yep, it’s open season on Tuchel, even though the reality of England’s fatal retreat is more nuanced. The uncomfortable truth is that a) they all bottled it to some extent and b) Argentina might have won anyway because they responded to going behind with an intensity and quality that were irresistible.

Ugh, the next few days could be pretty ugly.

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Updated at 18.04 EDT

Ed Aarons’ player ratings are here

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Now this is a statgasm, albeit a painful one for England fans

In the 37 minutes between Anthony Gordon’s goal and Lautaro Martinez’s winner, England had 12% possession.

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Updated at 17.53 EDT

Thomas Tuchel's reaction

double quotation markWe’re disappointed. We were so close but we got too passive after we scored. We conceded so, so many crosses and chances and shots. We were close, but we couldn’t keep the level up after we scored.

[On criticism of his substitutions] We decided to go a back five because the gaps inside were far too open, they won every header, they keep crossing and crossing so we wanted to be strong in the air. Straight after the [Anthony Gordon] goal, with no substitutions, we conceded way too many crosses. We tried to help the players, but of course the responsibility is on the coach. If it doesn’t go well, it’s easy to say [the coach] was wrong.

Of course we wanted to go for the second goal, but we couldn’t keep the ball. I don’t think it was a structural problem. The match changed completely [before the substitutions]. It’s no problem, I understand these discussions are out there, that there are a million coaches who know better. I had to make a decision. That’s how I analysed the match and I take the responsbility.

No regrets, not at the moment. We were very close, we deserved to be 1-0 up – we played one of our better matches [up to that point], maybe the best match in the circumstances.

[Did we see the team you wanted at this World Cup?] I don’t know. I have no answer to that question because I don’t really know what it means. I think we saw the mentality in every match; we won a strong group; we had a lot of airmiles; we played at altitude; we played with 10 men; we played in the heat. We overcame every obstacle and we were very close today.

It’s not the moment now to analyse the full tournament – we just went out because we lost a crucial match.

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Updated at 18.08 EDT

“Incredible example of how to play against the low block from Argentina,” writes Martin Widdicks. “So many great crosses, mixing up the approaches and getting real chances. Also noticeably almost no gamesmanship in the second half. I have to concede that they are the true mentality monsters.

“I suspect Spain will win on Sunday but I thought France would last time. It takes a brave person to bet against Argentina.”

Yeah that’s one of the fascinating details of the last 30 minutes – England couldn’t cope with a barrage of crosses.

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Thanks Will, hello again. The more you see Lionel Messi’s cross for the winner, the better it gets. And if you need a little statgasm before bed, I think Messi now has the most goals and the most assists in men’s World Cups.

Not 100% sure on the assists though; I need to do a Raymond Kopa deep dive first.

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Updated at 17.38 EDT

Right, I will hand back to Rob, who is at least slightly rested and refreshed. He’ll take you through to the finish.

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Argentina players hold up Las Malvinas banner

Just in case the end of the match needed a little more needle, some of the Argentina players have displayed a banner which reads: “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“The Malvinas are Argentinian”). For anyone who has missed the last, well, 45 or so years of history at least, British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (or Las Malvinas, as they are known in Argentina) is disputed by the South American country.

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Updated at 18.05 EDT

Kane talks up England’s sacrifices on the journey to the semis. “We’ve worked so hard to be here and the lads have given every last bit of running, sweat, blood, tears, whatever it is. So to fall short like we did today is just gutting.”

He concedes that, after the goal, England struggled to maintain the same intensity in their pressing and apply the same pressure on Argentina. “After the goal, whether it was them putting more men forward or us being able to match them man for man, it just was wave after wave and we were just trying to hold on, put the blocks in, but in the end it wasn’t enough.”

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Harry Kane is first to speak to the BBC and, unsurprisingly, he is utterly crestfallen. “Just gutted, gutted for the boys, gutted for everyone: the team, the staff, the fans,” he says. “We played well for the vast majority of it. Once we went 1-0 up we just seemed to try to hold on which, at this level, is not enough, so I’m just gutted, gutted.”

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Updated at 17.49 EDT

An email has landed from Krishna Moorthy: “All that I learned about football can be summed up in four words: never write off Argentina.”

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Shearer adds: “He played his cards very, very early, Thomas, in the hope that England could hang on, and it’s backfired. But those decisions are the ones that make such a difference.

“We were praising him for what he did, going to five at the back, in the previous two games when England were under huge pressure. Now I guess we’ve gone the other way and are thinking: ‘Could he have just changed something different and put a bit more pace on?’ Because everything was coming back at England. They didn’t have an outlet, because whenever they won the ball they had no energy. They were physically and mentally done once Argentina got that first goal.”

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As Rob takes a well-deserved break, let’s take in some of the reaction. There’s a lot of talk about Thomas Tuchel’s substitutions, with the decision to swap out Declan Rice and Reece James with just under 10 minutes of normal time remaining likely to be a point of intense debate in the coming days. Alan Shearer, speaking from the BBC commentary box, made his feelings known during the match and has done so again. “He played his hand, we knew that he was wanting to hang on,” says Shearer.

“Difference is, hanging on against Norway, or hanging on against Mexico as we were, [they] perhaps haven’t got the quality that this team have got, Argentina, in terms of their ability on the ball and their ability to punish you.”

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Updated at 17.45 EDT

I’m going to hand over to Will Magee for a bit. Ta!

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Spain v Argentina (Sunday 19 July) So, the 2026 World Cup final will be contested between the champions of Europe and the champions of South America, who also happen to be champions ofthe world. Oh, and there’s this little subplot too.

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England sat too deep after going ahead, then compounded the problem by taking off Anthony Gordon. It meant they had no pace at all in attack; no threat on the break or simple outball. With the way the game developed, Harry Kane and to a lesser extent Jude Bellingham became an irrelevance. It feels weird to type that but it’s true.

Argentina may well have won regardless, because they responded to going behind with a focus, intensity and quality that were pretty awesome to watch. But if Thomas Tuchel had his time again, he’d surely do things differently.

It’s also possible that Tuchel didn’t want England to sit that deep, then switched to a back five when he realised they were on their last legs. Who knows.

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Updated at 17.19 EDT

There’s a bit of aggro after the final whistle. Morgan Rogers is involved, Ivan Toney as well. It’s hard to see what’s happening because the TV coverage keeps cutting away.

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England were tantalisingly close to their first men’s World Cup final in 60 years, 1-0 up after 84 minutes. But they were living so dangerously that their lead didn’t feel remotely secure. Enzo Fernandez wobbled a superb equaliser and Lautaro Martinez’s injury-time winner was almost inevitable.

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Updated at 17.07 EDT

Full time: England 1-2 Argentina

Argentina’s mentality monsters have done it again!

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Updated at 17.50 EDT

90+9 min Bellingham fouls Messi andf then gets involved with Otamendi. He’s been too emotional all night. There’s no hard-luck story for Bellingham or England, who have been given a lesson in focussed aggression.

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