A TLANTA For eighty-five minutes, England believed. Then Lionel Messi picked up a loose ball near the penalty spot, and belief evaporated.
Anthony Gordon gave the Three Lions the dream start. Ten minutes into the second half, he volleyed home a Morgan Rogers cross, sending a sea of England shirts into delirium and putting Thomas Tuchel's side within touching distance of a first World Cup final since 1966.
For a while, it held. Then it didn't.
Sensing danger, Tuchel reached for his bench. Off came Gordon in the 72nd minute. Then, in the 82nd, Reece James and Declan Rice followed replaced by Dan Burn and Nico O'Reilly as England shifted into a back five. The idea, Tuchel explained afterward, was to shut down Argentina's aerial threat and choke off the crosses. Instead, it invited them.
Argentina had barely touched the ball in England's half all night. Then, suddenly, they had almost all of it England's share of possession collapsed to just 12 percent in the closing stretch.
Alexis Mac Allister rattled the post. Enzo Fernández, pouncing on the rebound from a short corner routine, curled a long-range effort past Jordan Pickford in the 85th minute to level the score. Mac Allister hit the woodwork again moments later Argentina, somehow, still weren't finished.
Deep into stoppage time, with the match seemingly drifting toward extra time, Messi gathered another loose ball, shielded it, and lofted a cross to the back post. Lautaro Martínez, on the pitch for barely ten minutes, rose above two defenders and headed it in. Minute 90+2. Game over. Argentina 2, England 1.
Both goals traced back to the same pair of feet. Messi didn't score himself, but he made both stretching a personal run that now reads 14 goals and 11 assists across his last 13 appearances for club and country combined.
The German coach didn't dodge the fallout. Asked point-blank whether his calls were wrong, he pushed back, arguing that hindsight makes critics of everyone and that no one can know how a different set of decisions would have played out. Fair, perhaps and cold comfort to a country that watched its World Cup dream die inside seven minutes.
Wayne Rooney called the substitutions baffling. Supporters online were considerably less polite. Tuchel says he intends to stay on regardless; his contract already runs through Euro 2028.
- Kickoff: A cagey, foul-heavy opening neither side records a shot on target in the first 30 minutes, the first time that's happened in a World Cup since matches began being broadcast live in 1966.
- 55': Anthony Gordon puts England 1-0 up.
- 72'–82': Tuchel sends on three defensive substitutes and switches to a back five.
- 85': Enzo Fernández levels for Argentina, capping a move started by Messi.
- 90+2': Lautaro Martínez heads in the winner — Messi's second assist of the night.
- Full time: Tuchel faces reporters and defends the substitutions; Harry Kane concedes England's response to taking the lead fell short.
- Within hours: Tributes pour in from British football figures; pundits across Argentina and Brazil pile criticism on Tuchel's tactics; Messi brushes off preemptive doubters from earlier in the tournament.
Argentina, the defending champions, now face European champions Spain in Sunday's final a clash of styles between Lionel Scaloni's battle-hardened veterans and a Spanish side built on relentless possession. Scaloni himself framed it as another chapter in a run of comebacks few teams could survive even once.
England get a consolation fixture instead: Saturday's third-place match against France in Miami Gardens. Nobody wants to play that game, least of all a squad still working out how a result so firmly in hand slipped away in under five hundred seconds.
For Messi, at 39 and very likely playing his last World Cup, one match remains. Whatever unfolds on Sunday, Wednesday night in Atlanta will be remembered as the night he did it again.
Photo: @FIFAcom/X
Photo: @FIFAcom/X
