England vs Argentina: FIFA World Cup semifinal – Messi, Kane and prediction

Who: England vs Argentina
What: FIFA World Cup 2026 – semifinal 2
Where: Atlanta Stadium successful Atlanta, Georgia, the United States
When: Wednesday astatine 3pm (19:00 GMT)
How to follow: We volition person each the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 16:00 GMT earlier our unrecorded substance commentary stream.

Years of governmental past and shot rivalry volition collide successful Atlanta erstwhile England look Argentina successful a World Cup semifinal for the ages.

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From the arguable “Hand of God” extremity by Diego Maradona successful 1986 to David Beckham being red-carded for kicking Diego Simeone successful 1998, sporting contests betwixt England and Argentina are often theatrical, tense and tricky.

Then, determination is also the lingering sovereignty dispute implicit the Falkland Islands.

Divided by geography and conflict, England and Argentina are vastly antithetic successful galore ways, yet astatine this World Cup, they person astatine slightest 1 happening successful communal – some person made a wont of surviving connected the edge.

For England, the program is simple: Find a mode to halt the magical unit of Lionel Messi and scope their archetypal last successful six decades.

And for Argentina? To grind again and pursuit past successful back-to-back finals.

Here’s everything you request to cognize astir this semifinal:

How did England and Argentina scope the semifinals?

England topped Group L with 7 points, beating Croatia and Panama and drafting with Ghana. They needed a second-half comeback to bushed the Democratic Republic of the Congo successful the circular of 32 and knocked retired cohosts Mexico 3-2 in a scintillating last-16 contention astatine the iconic Azteca Stadium.

In the quarterfinals, they came from a extremity down to beat Norway 2-1 successful other time.

Argentina had a beardown showing successful the archetypal round, topping Group J by beating Algeria, Austria and Jordan. In the circular of 32, they were pushed to their limits earlier squeezing past Cape Verde 3-2 successful other time, and came from 2 goals down to beat Egypt 3-2 in a arguable last-16 contention which drew allegations of officiating bias.

Against Switzerland successful the quarterfinals, they again played a afloat 120 minutes earlier securing a 3-1 win.

Harry Kane, left, and Lionel Messi, right, are some successful the contention for the Golden Boot [Roberto Schmidt, Chandan Khanna/AFP]

At last, Messi meets England

From winning the World Cup to Copa America, lifting the Champions League trophy to the Ballon d’Or, and kissing the Golden Ball, Messi has achieved astir everything imaginable successful football.

But successful his 21 years playing for Argentina, determination is 1 happening helium has not done: look England.

The 39-year-old guardant volition play against the Three Lions for the archetypal time, 21 years connected from the reddish paper helium received successful the aboriginal days of his career, which denied him the accidental successful a 2005 friendly.

“I person played against everyone but England, and it is peculiar due to the fact that they are a large nation, a powerhouse, and it is ever bully to play against a broadside similar that, particularly successful a World Cup semifinal,” Messi said.

With 8 goals successful six matches, Messi is enjoying a World Cup run similar nary different arsenic helium bids for his archetypal Golden Boot. As the captain, helium is besides starring Argentina’s complaint to go the archetypal squad to clasp the World Cup since Brazil successful 1962.

Should they bushed England, Argentina would beryllium successful their 3rd last successful 4 World Cups, and Messi could travel successful the footsteps of Brazil’s great, Cafu, who played successful 3 successful a enactment from 1994 to 2002 – adjacent Maradona lone ever played successful two.

“Getting to different semifinal is not a normal, mundane thing, truthful this is thing we should truly bask due to the fact that we don’t cognize if it volition hap again,” Messi said.

Pickford backs England to support chill successful tense clash

Generations successful England person not seen their squad assistance a large trophy. Their lone occurrence came erstwhile hosting the 1966 World Cup.

This existent squad – headlined by the dynamic duo of Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham – is, however, wrong touching region of making history, by not lone winning a 2nd trophy, but a archetypal connected overseas soil.

Before the game, though, Thomas Tuchel’s broadside knows the unit is firmly connected them, but goalkeeper Jordan Pickford believes the squad tin cope.

“You’ve seen passim the tourney our tendency to triumph tackles. We’ve not got into immoderate scuffles oregon anything,” helium said connected Monday.

“We’ve been precise good respected wrong the game. Decisions spell our mode [or] they don’t spell our way, we conscionable reset, we spell again, and we fto the shot bash the talking.”

England, 4th successful the FIFA rankings, 2 spots beneath Argentina, are acceptable to diagnostic successful a 4th semifinal successful the past 5 large tournaments.

England’s Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane person scored 12 of the team’s 13 goals astatine the tourney [Paul Childs/Reuters]

England vs Argentina predictions

As of Tuesday, Opta’s supercomputer gives England a 39.1 percent probability of winning successful regularisation time, portion Argentina’s chances of winning are 31.6 percent.

The exemplary estimates a 29.3 percent probability of the crippled going to other time.

Who is the referee for England vs Argentina?

• Referee: Ismail Elfath (US)
• Assistant referee 1: Corey Parker (US)
• Assistant referee 2: Kyle Atkins (US)
• Fourth official: Maurizio Mariani (Italy)
• Reserve adjunct referee: Daniele Bindoni (Italy)

England vs Argentina: Kickoff time, wherever to watch

• United Kingdom: BBC One, BBC iPlayer (8pm, British Summer Time)
• Argentina: TyC Sports, TyC Play (4pm, Argentina Standard Time)
• USA: Fox, Fox One, Telemundo App, Telemundo Network, Peacock, Universo (3pm, Eastern Daylight Time)

To cheque the TV listings for your country, caput to FIFA’s TV listing schedule here.

Where is England vs Argentina being played?

England volition play Argentina successful the 2nd semifinal astatine Atlanta Stadium, commonly known arsenic Mercedes-Benz Stadium, successful Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is the past of the 7 World Cup matches held astatine this venue, which has a capableness of 68,239 for the tournament.

The stadium, boasting a retractable extortion and a 360-degree halo video display, undoubtedly has the astir space-age architecture of the 16 big cities.

Seven matches, including 2 knockout matches, were held astatine Atlanta Stadium [Buda Mendes/Getty Images via AFP]

What is the upwind forecast for Atlanta?

AccuWeather forecasts rainfall connected Wednesday afternoon. “Some prima with a thundery shower,” it says.

England vs Argentina: Head-to-head

Overall, they person met 14 times successful competitory and affable matches.

England pb the head-to-head grounds with six wins, portion Argentina person three. Five games ended successful a draw.

England vs Argentina: Past results

• England 3-2 Argentina (International friendly, 2005)
• England 1-0 Argentina (World Cup 2002, radical stage)
• England 0-0 Argentina (International friendly, 2000)
• Argentina 2-2 England (4-3 connected penalties, World Cup 1998, circular of 16)
• England 2-2 Argentina (Challenge Cup, 1991)

Who does the victor look successful the last and when?

The victor of the semifinal betwixt Argentina and England volition look either France oregon Spain successful Sunday’s last astatine New York New Jersey Stadium.

Is it coming home? England supporters deliberation truthful [AFP]

England vs Argentina: Team news

England midfielder Declan Rice, who has been struggling with illness, is simply a doubt, portion seasoned subordinate Jordan Henderson is retired with a wrist injury.

No injuries reported successful the Argentina camp.

England’s predicted lineup

(4-1-3-2): Pickford; Konsa, Stones, Guehi, O’Reilly; Rice, Anderson; Madueke, Bellingham, Gordon; Kane

Argentina’s predicted lineup

(4-1-3-2): Martinez; Molina, Romero, Lisandro, Tagliafico; Paredes; De Paul, Fernandez, Mac Allister; Messi, Alvarez