Burn says England’s World Cup semi-final loss will haunt him

“This will haunt me for a long time, I think.” Dan Burn did not hide the damage of England’s 2-1 World Cup semi-final defeat by Argentina in Atlanta, where Anthony Gordon’s 55th-minute opener briefly put the men’s team within touching distance of a first World Cup final since 1966 before Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez turned the match around.

Burn came off the bench with England leading 1-0, but the evening unravelled as Argentina found space, crosses and momentum. The Newcastle United defender said England had “nailed the gameplan pretty well” early on, only to become “too passive” as the match wore on. That shift proved fatal against a Argentina side experienced in squeezing pressure into decisive moments, and it left England with another painful near miss on the biggest stage.

The defeat deepened a pattern that has become hard to ignore. England have now lost in the semi-finals in two of the past three men’s World Cups, and they were beaten in the European Championship finals in 2021 and 2024. Harry Kane said the squad were devastated and would have to work out how to improve in high-pressure situations, a message that matches the evidence of recent tournament exits: when the margins tighten, England have repeatedly failed to control the final phase of major games.

There was also a sharper historical edge to the loss. England and Argentina had met five times before at the men’s World Cup, in 1962, 1966, 1986, 1998 and 2002, with England’s last win coming on penalties in 2002 after David Beckham’s famous spot kick. Burn has said he fell in love with football watching Beckham’s winner against Argentina, and he had also urged England to take a leaf out of Argentina’s book by building stronger team spirit. This time, Argentina’s cohesion carried them through to another final and left England to face France in the third-place play-off in Miami on Saturday.

Burn still said he was proud of the tournament England had produced and that few people had given the squad a chance. He also admitted he had thought they were going to win it, which made the loss sting harder and added another layer to England’s long-running problem: talent alone has not been enough to deliver resilience when the knockout pressure peaks.