England 1-2 Argentina: Five Minutes That Ended It

England were five minutes from the World Cup final.

Sixty years of hurt, four major semi-finals since 2018, two Euro finals lost — and they were five minutes from ending all of it.

Anthony Gordon had put them ahead on 55 minutes, tapping home Morgan Rogers’ cross on the break. The defending was disciplined. Atlanta was hostile but England were handling it. Sunday was right there.

Then Enzo Fernández scored on 85. Then Lautaro Martínez scored on 92.

Messi set up both.

England 1-2 Argentina — Five Minutes That Ended It

How It Actually Happened

The first half was a street fight, not a football match.

At the first hydration break the two teams had combined for eight fouls and zero shots on target. Bodies everywhere, tempers flaring, referee Ismail Elfath — the first American man to work a World Cup semi-final — booking one from each side before the break just to get control.

Argentina’s plan was obvious: harass England, drag them into a scrap, make it ugly. It worked for a while.

Then the second half opened up. Rogers found Gordon in transition on 55, and suddenly England had exactly what they wanted — a lead to defend against a team that had to come out.

And that’s where it went wrong.

Tuchel went defensive. Too early, and too far. England dropped deeper, stopped keeping the ball, and handed Argentina the entire pitch.

The final stats tell you everything. Argentina had 15 shots. England had 5. Possession: 56% to 35%. Once England sat back, they never got out again.

Mac Allister smashed a header off the inside of the post. Then Enzo, who’d just been denied by Pickford, bent a brilliant one in from distance on 85. Level.

Seven minutes later, Messi crossed, Lautaro headed it home, and it was done.

Kane summed it up better than anyone:

“It’s a similar story to what’s happened in previous tournaments. We’d done so well for that 60 minutes. We scored. We deserved to be ahead. And then, for one reason or another, we struggled to keep the ball. We struggled to put pressure on the ball and it just allowed them to create more momentum.”

He’s not wrong. 2018 semi-final: England scored first, lost 2-1. Wednesday: England scored first, lost 2-1. Same script, eight years apart.

Argentina Just Don’t Die

England exit the World Cup at the semi-final stage again

Here’s what makes this Argentina team genuinely frightening.

This was their fourth straight knockout game decided by a rescue act:

Cape Verde — taken to extra time by an African island nation nobody rated
Egypt — went 2-0 down and won 3-2
Switzerland — forced to extra time by a ten-man team
England — losing with five minutes left, won it in injury time

That’s not luck four times in a row. That’s a team that has completely accepted it will be uncomfortable and simply refuses to lose anyway.

Scaloni put it perfectly after the game:

“I think that this team plays the best when we are facing a difficult situation, with adversity. We had a challenging game, a challenging situation. There was blood in the water, and we went for it.”

And at the centre of it, again, Messi. He didn’t score. He didn’t need to. He assisted both goals in the last five minutes of a World Cup semi-final — the first time in his entire career he’d ever played against England.

Twenty-one career World Cup goals. Eight this tournament. And now he’s 90 minutes from a second World Cup in a row.

The Rivalry Was Never Just Football

This one had heat before kickoff.

FIFA and local law enforcement had flagged it as the highest-risk match of the entire tournament. Argentina’s vice president posted the night before calling England “usurping pirates.” After the whistle, midfielder Giovani Lo Celso — who didn’t even play — unfurled a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas.”

Hand of God in ’86. Beckham’s red card in ’98. A war in ’82. Twenty-one years since they last met on a pitch.

Nobody was pretending this was a normal semi-final.

What It Means for Sunday

The final is set: Spain vs Argentina. Sunday, MetLife.

And it’s a genuinely fascinating matchup.

Spain have conceded one goal in seven matches. They’re 36 games unbeaten — no losses since March 2024. They dismantled France 2-0 on Tuesday, the number one team in the world, and it never looked in doubt. They’re the bookmakers’ favourite.

Argentina are the defending champions chasing back-to-back titles — something nobody has done in 70 years. They have three World Cups to Spain’s one. And they’ve spent this entire knockout run proving that being second best for 85 minutes doesn’t actually matter to them.

Best defence in the tournament versus the team that will not die. That’s the final.

If you’re betting it: Spain will be favourites and the price will reflect it. But Argentina have been underdogs in basically every knockout game they’ve played and are still standing. Whatever you think about the odds, don’t write them off — England just did that for 85 minutes and look how it ended.

And Messi is now the clear Golden Boot favourite with Mbappé gone. Eight goals, one game left.