Scaloni leads Argentina into World Cup semifinal against England

Lionel Scaloni pushed Argentina back into the World Cup semifinals with a 3-1 extra-time win over Switzerland in Kansas City Stadium, then pulled the temperature back down before the meeting with England on Wednesday in Atlanta. The defending champions advanced through a match decided late in the added period, with Julián Álvarez scoring in the 112th minute, Lautaro Martínez adding the third in the final seconds of extra time, and Alexis Mac Allister opening the scoring after a Lionel Messi corner.

Argentina’s route to the last four carried both pressure and control. The win extended an unbeaten run to 12 matches in World Cup play, and it preserved a record that has held across eight meetings with Switzerland, which had reached the quarterfinals for the first time since 1954. The match also turned on a video review that corrected a mistaken yellow card and left Switzerland with 10 players, a decisive twist in a game that had already demanded extra time to settle.

Scaloni’s message after the quarterfinal was measured rather than triumphant. He framed the semifinal in the language of institutional confidence, not bravado, saying “it doesn’t matter who the opponent is” as he pressed for the same emotional balance that has carried Argentina through the tournament. That tone matched a side defending a title in a 23rd World Cup that is being played for the first time with 48 teams and 104 matches across Canada, Mexico and the United States.

England arrived with a different kind of strain. Thomas Tuchel’s team beat Norway 2-1 after extra time in Miami, with Jude Bellingham scoring both goals, to set up the meeting with Argentina. Tuchel called England “very fortunate” and said the team needs to improve sharply, a blunt assessment for a semifinalist entering one of the tournament’s most loaded fixtures.

The match in Atlanta will revive one of the World Cup’s most charged rivalries and send one of the two sides into a final against France or Spain. Both Argentina and England needed extra time to finish quarterfinals that were tight, physical and decided in the margins, a pattern that has made the semifinal feel less like a spectacle than a test of endurance, control and tournament management.