分类： sports

ATLANTA — In a match that will go down as one of the most dramatic chapters in modern World Cup history, Lionel Messi once again cemented his legacy as soccer’s ultimate big-game player, orchestrating a late comeback that lifted Argentina to a 2-1 semifinal victory over England on Wednesday. With just one win now standing between him and a second World Cup trophy for his nation, the 39-year-old superstar did not add to his tournament-leading goal tally, but his vision and precision in the final minutes turned a likely exit into a historic ticket to the final.

This comeback marks the second unlikely rally Argentina has pulled off in this tournament, coming just eight days after a similarly improbable last-gasp win over Egypt in the round of 16. For a career already widely regarded as the greatest in the sport’s history, Wednesday’s performance added another iconic entry to Messi’s already overflowing collection of legendary moments.

England looked poised to fulfill its dream of reaching its first World Cup final since 1966, when it claimed its only global title, after Anthony Gordon put the Three Lions ahead in the 55th minute. For the next half hour, England held on tightly to its lead, clinging to the chance of a historic upset. But Argentina, a side that has built its tournament run on resilience and never-say-die spirit, had other plans.

The turning point came in the 85th minute. Working a short corner routine, Messi received a quick return pass after pushing the ball out along the touchline, spotted Enzo Fernández unmarked 25 yards from goal, and played a perfectly weighted pass into his path. Fernández fired a blistering curling shot that sailed beyond England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford into the top corner, leveling the score and shifting all momentum to Argentina.

By the time stoppage time rolled around, an Argentine winner felt almost inevitable. Just two minutes into the added stoppage period, Messi delivered again, whipping a pinpoint cross into the six-yard box. Lautaro Martínez slipped between two England defenders and guided a calm header past Pickford for the game-winning goal.

Argentina saw out the remaining minutes without conceding, and when the final whistle blew, Messi dropped to his knees on the Atlanta pitch, pumping his fists in celebration of yet another unforgettable victory. The win sets up a World Cup final showdown with Spain on Sunday, where Argentina will have the chance to make history as the first men’s national team to repeat as World Cup champions since Brazil accomplished the feat back in 1958 and 1962.

Individually, Messi remains tied with France’s Kylian Mbappé in the race for the tournament’s Golden Boot, with both strikers having notched eight goals so far. He also holds the record for most goals scored in World Cup history across all tournaments, with a total of 21. Yet for Messi, all individual accolades pale in comparison to the prize that now sits one win away: a second World Cup trophy for Argentina.

One of the most iconic rivalries in international men’s football is set to reignite this Wednesday at Atlanta Stadium, as defending champions Argentina face England for a spot in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final. For England, a win would mark their first appearance in a World Cup final since their historic 1966 triumph, adding extra weight to an already charged encounter.

Long-running political tensions between the two nations have overshadowed this fixture for decades, rooted in the 1982 Falklands War – a 74-day conflict over the sovereignty of the South Atlantic territory (claimed as Las Malvinas by Argentina) that killed 649 Argentine soldiers, 255 British service members, and three civilians. The sovereignty dispute remains unresolved to this day, and off-pitch tensions have repeatedly spilled into on-pitch encounters, most notably Diego Maradona’s infamous 1986 World Cup quarter-final victory over England.

Speaking ahead of the high-stakes semi-final, Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni – who led his nation to the 2022 World Cup title in Qatar – made clear he will not blend political history with the 90 minutes of football on Wednesday. “The reality is that this is a football match. I can’t mix things up, especially out of respect for what happened so many years ago,” Scaloni told reporters. “It was a very sad period in our history, and there isn’t much we can do about it, that’s the reality. Things are happening elsewhere in the world, and we criticise the existence of war. We certainly remember those people, of course. But it is a football match; we shouldn’t confuse the two.”

Organizers have implemented enhanced security protocols around the match to account for the decades of historical friction between the two fanbases. Tensions flared in the lead-up to the semi-final after video captured Argentine players singing a controversial pre-match chant referencing the disputed islands following their dramatic 3-2 last-16 win over Egypt. This encounter also marks the first time Lionel Messi, Argentina’s 39-year-old eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, has ever faced England in a World Cup fixture during his legendary career. Messi has carried Argentina through their 2026 tournament run, notching eight goals to tie France’s Kylian Mbappe for the tournament lead.

Despite reaching the semi-finals, Argentina have not yet hit their collective stride in this year’s knockout stage. Following a tough extra-time win over Cape Verde in the round of 32, the defending champions required another 30 minutes of extra play to defeat ten-man Switzerland in the quarter-finals. But Scaloni pushed back on any concerns over his side’s form or fatigue ahead of Wednesday’s clash. “A month-and-a-half ago I would have taken getting to the semi-final if you had offered me that, so I don’t mind how we got here,” he said. “I can’t reproach my players. Whether we are tired or not I don’t care. This is a World Cup semi-final.”

Scaloni confirmed that his coaching staff has been preparing the squad to handle England’s standout attacking duo: striker Harry Kane and midfielder Jude Bellingham, both of whom have netted six goals apiece through England’s run to the semi-final. “They are two great players, among the best in the world. Any coach would like to have them,” he acknowledged.

The match is scheduled to kick off at 20:00 BST on July 15, with full broadcast coverage available across BBC platforms. UK viewers can watch live UHD coverage on BBC One and BBC iPlayer starting from 19:00 BST, while radio commentary will air on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds from 18:00 BST. Live text updates, in-play clips, and post-match analysis will also be available via the BBC Sport website and mobile app.

As Argentina prepares to lock horns with old rival England in the 2026 FIFA World Cup semifinal at 20:00 BST on July 15, one beloved figure in the press box is drawing global attention for a once-in-a-lifetime milestone: 91-year-old Spanish broadcaster Enrique Macaya Márquez, better known simply as Macaya, has covered every men’s World Cup since the iconic 1958 tournament in Sweden, an unmatched streak of 18 consecutive editions that spans nearly 70 years of football history.

Macaya was just 24 when he received his first World Cup assignment, sent to the 1958 Swedish tournament to cover a field that introduced 17-year-old Brazilian prodigy Pelé to the world. One of his earliest matches was Pelé’s Brazil against Austria, but the moment that remains indelibly etched in his memory is what Argentine football fans still call the “Disaster of Sweden” — Argentina’s stunning 6-1 defeat to Czechoslovakia. “We knew almost nothing about Czechoslovakia. We had no information, no data, and they surprised us,” Macaya recalled in an interview.

Over the course of his seven-decade career, Macaya has witnessed the transformation of men’s football from a regional pastime to a $30 billion global spectacle. He has reported from pitchside on every generation of the game’s greatest stars, from Pelé and Diego Maradona to the current era’s Lionel Messi, watching as analog broadcast technology evolved into high-definition digital streaming, and post-match print analysis shifted to real-time, data-driven instant statistics. Yet through all these sweeping changes, Macaya has held fast to one core journalistic principle: he refuses to rush to snap judgments.

That approach shaped his view back in 2018, when Lionel Scaloni — a relatively unknown former player — was unexpectedly appointed head coach of the Argentine national team. At the time, Macaya admitted he had little confidence in the appointment. “I didn’t have high hopes, I didn’t know him,” the DSPORTS Radio commentator said. But Scaloni’s tenure has defied all expectations: he has led Argentina to three major trophies, including the 2022 World Cup title, turning what was widely labeled one of the riskiest coaching appointments in football history into one of its greatest success stories. For Macaya, that turnaround only reinforced his long-held belief: “You can’t pass judgement without a much deeper, more complete understanding of the person being judged.”

Today, as Argentina returns to the World Cup semifinal stage to face England, Macaya is confident the South American side has what it takes to lift the trophy for a second consecutive time. “Of course they can,” he said. “If we’re talking about what is possible, about the future, I believe Argentina is capable of winning.”

When asked to name his favorite player in the current squad, he did not hesitate: “Clearly, it’s Messi.” But the iconic broadcaster pushed back against the perennial debate over who holds the title of the greatest footballer of all time, refusing to draw simplistic comparisons between eras. “That question deserves a smile,” he said. “There’s no way to measure players throughout history. Times have changed. Opponents have changed. Every player is unique. I can say who I personally liked, but that doesn’t mean I believe that player was the best in history.”

This nuanced perspective extends to all cross-era comparisons, from the rivalry between Messi and Maradona (two of Argentina’s greatest number 10s) to the 1970 Brazilian side led by Pelé and Maradona’s 1986 World Cup-winning team. “It is very difficult to make a cold comparison,” he explained. “The opponents were different. The needs were different. The support from their team-mates was different. Each had their own life and their own history.”

Macaya also noted that defeats are just as important to football history as victory. “Negative results are also part of that memory,” he said. Even so, he acknowledges that World Cup triumphs hold a special place in his heart as an Argentine journalist, particularly Maradona’s 1986 win. “Winning the World Cup is my favourite memory, and in Maradona’s case, I think the trophy had finally given him the answer he sought his entire life: to be a world champion.”

After nearly 70 years of traveling the world to cover football’s biggest tournament, Macaya says retirement is finally on the horizon. “I’m going to retire at some point,” he said with a laugh. “I’m retiring now… so I’ll hang up and leave it for another time.” For a man who has spent a lifetime documenting the history of the World Cup, a gentle, gradual goodbye feels like a fitting end to a remarkable career — one that has already cemented his place in football lore. True to his open-ended approach to the game, though, Macaya’s farewell never feels truly final.

The 2026 World Cup semifinal between England and Argentina will be broadcast live globally, with full UK coverage available on BBC One and BBC iPlayer starting at 19:00 BST, with radio commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds from 18:00 BST.

Lionel Messi’s 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign has been a rollercoaster of tangled emotions, capped by unguarded tears after Argentina’s dramatic comeback from a 2-0 deficit to book their quarter-final spot against Switzerland. This was not the first time Messi had broken down in tears during the tournament: just days after the opening match, he cried when he learned of a sudden health complication affecting his father. This time, however, the tears flowed from relief—relief that a missed penalty, which for a tense stretch looked set to end Argentina’s World Cup run early, did not end up letting his teammates down.

Widely expected to be his final World Cup appearance, this tournament has reconnected Messi with the joy of the game that defined him as a young prospect leaving his hometown of Rosario, Argentina. Under manager Lionel Scaloni, the 39-year-old Inter Miami forward has found a national squad built explicitly around his strengths, centered on collective unity rather than individual stardom.

Scaloni, who took over Argentina’s national side on an interim basis in 2018 when no other coach wanted the role, inherited a fractured, underperforming squad of fatigued star players under constant public scrutiny. He made the unpopular call to bench veteran big names and promote unheralded prospects, then built a system rooted in one core principle: let Messi lead. Where other coaches force Messi into rigid tactical structures, Scaloni lets the Argentine icon dictate his position on the pitch, with the entire squad adapting to his choices. Against Egypt, Messi shifted to the right flank; 38 minutes into the quarter-final against Switzerland, he moved central, and the entire team adjusted to open up space for their leader.

“The best moments of all, by far, are celebrations of the group. I coach for this, not because I like a 4-3-3,” Scaloni explained ahead of the quarter-final. “I like drinking mate with my friends and players, sharing a barbecue, playing truco, as we have always done.” It is a philosophy that aligns perfectly with Messi’s own preferences, and one that has delivered unprecedented results: under Scaloni, Argentina has lifted four trophies—two Copa Américas, the 2022 World Cup, and the 2022 Finalissima—and won their last three consecutive World Cup semi-finals.

At the heart of the squad’s special bond with Messi is midfielder Rodrigo de Paul, who has grown into Messi’s closest confidant and constant companion in the national setup. The pair’s friendship began unexpectedly when de Paul noticed a subdued Messi leaving training alone one afternoon. After waiting 40 minutes to give him space, de Paul knocked on Messi’s hotel door and invited him for a round of mate and truco. That small gesture grew into a daily routine: every morning, the pair share mate in de Paul’s room, with other squad members joining in strictly by order of arrival, no exceptions allowed. De Paul playfully teases Messi, calls him “El Pequeno” (the little one) despite his age and status, and treats him as just another member of the group—exactly what Messi has always craved, rather than being put on a pedestal as a global monument to the sport. When the team walks out onto the pitch, Messi leads with de Paul right at his side, the rest of the squad fanning out behind in a wedge, a unified group protecting their leader.

For most of the current Argentina squad, Messi was not just a teammate first—he was their childhood idol, the reason many of them picked up a football at all. Every player wears the same Adidas Adistar Messi boots, and for Messi’s June birthday, the squad wore custom T-shirts printed with photos of each player alongside Messi across his decades with the national team. Off the pitch, Messi has matched the squad’s commitment: he has put in months of double training sessions with de Paul and stuck to an obsessive nutrition plan that has boosted his top speed by 5% compared to the 2022 Qatar World Cup. While he covers just 631 meters at maximum speed across the tournament and walks for 47% of any given match, he is currently the tournament’s top goalscorer. He also joins Kylian Mbappé as one of only two players in history to register 10 or more direct goal involvements in two separate World Cups, having hit the mark in 2022 and again in 2026.

In Argentine culture, football success carries far more weight than just a trophy. For generations, the nation has linked football greatness to national identity, running through a line from Diego Maradona to Messi: a nation rich in talent, repeatedly held back by political and economic instability, sees a World Cup win as proof Argentina still belongs among the world’s very best. That is why the squad sings their unofficial tournament anthem “La Cuarta Estrella” after every win, led by de Paul. The song honors Messi, pays tribute to Maradona, references the 1990 World Cup final that many Argentines see as a stolen title, and calls for a fourth World Cup star to be added to the national shirt.

After the dramatic Egypt comeback that saw Messi in tears, midfielder Leandro Paredes summed up the squad’s commitment: when they saw their leader crying, the team embraced him not just to comfort him, but to remind him they are all in this together, and they will leave everything on the pitch to make his dream of a second consecutive World Cup title come true. As Argentina prepares to face England in the 2026 World Cup semi-final on 15 July, fans around the world can watch the match live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, with full commentary available on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds.

### Broadcast Details for England v Argentina 2026 World Cup Semi-Final
– Date: 15 July
– Kickoff: 20:00 BST
– Coverage: UHD broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer starting at 19:00 BST; build-up and full match commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds from 18:00 BST; live text updates, in-play clips, highlights and analysis available on the BBC Sport website and app.