England coughs up two goals in seven minutes to blow their 1-0 lead. Argentina wins 2-1 and advances to the 2026 FIFA World Cup final.
Argentina 2—1 England
I have to give it to them. This is the first game this tournament where Argentina played mostly fair and it was not the referees or VAR gifting them the win… for the most part. The main foul I am curious as to why it was not reviewed was when, after only 10 minutes had been played, Enzo Fernández hits Elliot Anderson on the back of the neck with his forearm with no intent to go for the ball as the ball was not even in frame when the foul was committed. It was called a foul but no caution and no review.
England controlled early on and created most of the threatening chances in the first half. Jude Bellingham and Anthony Gordon were the main players, creating and influencing most of England’s chances. The Brits took the lead in the 55th minute after a great cross from Morgan Rogers found Gordon right outside the six-yard box. All Gordon had to do was place his foot and redirect the ball into the bottom left side netting.
After taking the lead, England sank back into a defensive position. Although they are known for their defense, they set up camp too far back in their own half and started to let Argentina get too many crosses into the box.
Argentina’s tying goal came from a beautiful shot from Enzo Fernández that just missed the incoming Bellingham and went into the left corner of the goal at about mid-height. Their winning goal came seven minutes later as a result of England letting in too many crosses. Lautaro Martínez was open in the box and got a free header to win the game for Argentina.
Although both chances were well executed by Argentina, it was England who messed up. Both Argentines were unmarked when shooting and heading the ball respectively. If England had started defending higher up the field like they were doing in the first half, the result may have been different. I also think that taking off Anthony Gordon was the wrong decision as he was the best offensive player on the field. I also found it strange that it took till the 90+6th minute to put on Marcus Rashford.
Argentina advances to the final where they will play Spain on July 19 at 3 p.m. ET. Before this on Saturday, the third-place match will take place between France and England on July 18 at 5 p.m. ET.
As always, stay tuned to Futbolhijo.com for in-depth coverage of the biggest World Cup yet. Check back for my next article, where I will be covering matches and news that occur throughout the tournament. You can also read my previous article where I broke down Spain’s advancement to the final.
Cover Photo: Norway and England Advance. NOTE: Image generated using the prompt “generate an image that matches the following 2026 world cup article title: Argentina advance to the world cup final,” by OpenAI, ChatGPT, 2026 (https://chatgpt.com/).
