Argentina are through to the World Cup final for the second tournament running, and the way they got there could not have been more fitting. Down to England in Atlanta, needing something from nothing, they found it in the cruelest possible way for the Three Lions: two goals in the last five minutes. Enzo Fernandez rescued it with a rocket from 20 yards in the 85th minute, then Lautaro Martinez headed home a Messi cross in the second minute of stoppage time. Final score, 2-1. Argentina’s fourth straight knockout game decided by a moment of pure late drama, and their fourth straight time surviving one.
Beating England to reach a final is rare enough. Doing it again after 2022 is rarer still. Argentina are chasing back-to-back World Cup titles, something no nation has managed in 70 years, since Brazil did it in 1958 and 1962. They already have three stars on the shirt to Spain’s one. Win Sunday, and this Argentina side stops being a great team and starts being one of the great teams, full stop.
But this particular semifinal was never just about the scoreline. Argentina and England hadn’t met in a World Cup since 1998, and the last time these two shared a knockout pitch before that was 1986, the quarterfinal that gave the world Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” and, minutes later, his “Goal of the Century,” a slaloming solo run from inside his own half that remains the single most replayed goal in the tournament’s history. Forty years on, almost to the week, Argentina walked back into that same rivalry with Maradona’s name still doing the talking. “Trying to do what Diego did is impossible,” Alexis Mac Allister said before kickoff. “Maybe only Leo can do that.” It’s the kind of line that would sound like hyperbole about anyone else. Nobody in Argentina blinked.
Because that’s the other half of this story. Lionel Messi, 39 years old, assisted both of Wednesday’s late goals, giving him a tournament-high haul of goal involvements and eight goals overall, tied for the Golden Boot lead. He’d never faced England before in his career, not once, not in 21 years at the top of the game, and he picked this of all nights to finally cross paths with them and send them home. Messi has not said whether this is his last World Cup. Unlike Cristiano Ronaldo, who confirmed his international career was over the moment Portugal were eliminated, Messi has stuck to a “day by day” line all tournament, giving nothing away. He’ll be 43 by the time the next one comes around in 2030. Nobody knows if Sunday is the end. Everybody is watching like it might be.
Waiting for them is Spain, comfortable 2-0 winners over France on Tuesday and chasing just their second World Cup title. It sets up a final between the tournament’s two most complete teams, La Albiceleste’s flair for finding a way against La Roja’s suffocating control, in what could be the last time the sport’s greatest living player wears the Argentina shirt at a World Cup.
Diego watched the 1986 quarterfinal from the middle of the pitch, ball at his feet, and turned it into legend. On Sunday, Argentina will try to do it again with Messi doing the leading. Kickoff, Sunday 19 July, MetLife Stadium, New Jersey. History, either way, is waiting.
