\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The Argentina men\u2019s national football team beat England 2- 1 in their 2026 World Cup semifinal to book a duel with Spain in the final. The game will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday, kicking off at 4 p.m Argentina time.<\/p>\n
It proved a hard-fought, physical first half, with neither team willing to overcommit and waiting for opportunities.<\/p>\n
In the second half, the Albiceleste looked like the best team, but a defensive lapse put it behind early. In the 55th minute, a quick counterattack led by Declan Rice ended with a cross that forward Anthony Gordon tapped into the back of the net.<\/p>\n
The game sent England to defend deeper and deeper, giving Argentina the ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It proved a costly mistake, as Argentina had several goalscoring chances. With five minutes to go, the comeback began when former River Plate star Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez scored with a long-range shot that caught the England goalkeeper off guard, making it 1-1.<\/p>\n
In the 92nd minute of added time, star and captain Lionel Messi picked up the ball after a missed shot by Alexis Mac Allister and put in a cross for striker Lautaro Mart\u00ednez to head in inside the six-yard box and seal the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the first time my dad got me a pair of boots, I dreamed of scoring this goal,\u201d said Mart\u00ednez, who struggled to hold off the tears. \u201cI want to dedicate it to my mom too, who never stopped looking after me even when I left to play for [Buenos Aires-based club] Racing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win proved a highly emotional affair for Messi and his teammates, who celebrated with a \u201cThe Malvinas are Argentine\u201d flag, which wasn\u2019t shown in the official broadcast due to rules against political messages.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got no words,\u201d said head coach Lionel Scaloni after the game. \u201cI said this team won\u2019t stop surprising me, and we\u2019ll go to win it all, but after this it\u2019s very hard for fans to understand what this team is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentina will now go up against Spain, who beat France 2-0 on Tuesday, in a dream final scheduled for Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re unique, look at this,\u201d said Scaloni, looking at the Argentine fans in the stadium. \u201cThese people pushed us to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editorial disclaimer: Although the UK refers to the territory as the \u201cFalkland Islands,\u201d Argentina strongly contests this name. The Buenos Aires Herald uses \u201cMalvinas\u201d to refer to the islands.<\/p>\n
Cover image: Selecci\u00f3n Argentina twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Argentina men\u2019s national football team beat England 2- 1 in their 2026 World Cup semifinal to book a duel with Spain in the final. The game will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday, kicking off at 4 p.m Argentina time. It proved a hard-fought, physical first half, with neither team […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":90863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5063,69,22873,66,1373,5309,67,339],"tags":[5307,6040,23313,1368,1371,5308,1369,3576],"class_list":["post-90862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2026-world-cup","category-argentina-mens-national-football-team","category-england","category-football","category-lionel-messi","category-lionel-scaloni","category-sports","category-world-cup-2026","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-argentina-mens-national-football-team","tag-england","tag-football","tag-lionel-messi","tag-lionel-scaloni","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}