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MIAMI STADIUM — For England fans, this is always the year. Whether it’s a World Cup or a European Championship, they believe in their heart of hearts that their country, the one that invented this sport and then exported it to all the rest, will finally, eventually take its rightful place as champions. Over the last almost 60 years, it just hasn’t happened. But the Three Lions have been getting closer. They were the losing finalists at the last two Euros. And with Saturday’s 2-1 extra-time win over Erling Haaland and Norway, England is back in the World Cup semifinals for the second time in three editions. This time, it doesn’t feel like an outlier. Watching England survive the crucible of Mexico City in last weekend’s thrilling 3-2 victory over World Cup co-host Mexico, it was impossible not to notice the mental fortitude of Thomas Tuchel’s team. And it was the same again on Saturday in South Florida, where Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane and the rest of Tuchel’s stars won another match that was less of a soccer game than a street fight. That hasn’t always been the case for England, who over the last 30-plus years has often performed beneath its talent level. That might be good enough to survive group play consistently or win an early knockout game. Against teams that it isn’t naturally superior to? No chance. There’s a reason England has been eliminated in the World Cup quarterfinals more than any other national team in history. This version of England is different. “The effort, the team spirit, the belief to overcome adversity, to dig in and find ways to win is on the absolutely highest level,” Tuchel said afterward. He’s right. And that’s why England is, realistically, a bona fide World Cup contender at long last. There’s a visceral toughness to this team that, for all its ability, its pampered, high-maintenance predecessors lacked. Call it a willingness to fight for every teammate — even the ones who might represent a hated Premier League rival. That matters more than most think. Argentina isn’t the reigning World Cup champ because it had better players, man for man, than France. Man for man, it didn’t. La Albiceleste won because, time and again, they simply refused to be beaten. That sort of mental strength is rare. Add it to a selfless group that boasts legitimate all-world players like Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, and damned if Tuchel’s side doesn’t stand its best chance in at least half a century this time around. Facing Switzerland on Wednesday in Atlanta would’ve been easier, to be sure. But beating the best — to be the best — is a rite of passage, a requirement. And the defending champs — Argentina scored twice in extra time in Saturday’s nightcap to set up the semifinal everyone who isn’t English wants to see — are a fitting roadblock to have to somehow overcome. Should England clear that hurdle, it surely won’t fear whoever emerges between France and Spain on the stronger side of the bracket. Especially if, as Tuchel believes, England still has another gear to hit. In his post-match sideline interviews, the German manager raised eyebrows when he said he loved the result if not the performance against Norway. Asked about the exchange, it seemed to catch Bellingham off-guard. “Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those conditions,” Bellingham offered. An hour later, during his post-game press conference in the bowels of the arena that the NFL’s Miami Dolphins call home, Tuchel, whose previous experience has been at Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain, provided some additional context. “I’m proud, and I’m happy,” Tuchel said. “But I’m also a football coach, and I also have demands.” He continued: “I think we can play faster and play more clinical. There were unforced errors and technical mistakes in our game … so a lot of things to do better.” If England can clean up those errors and maintain the mentality that has already taken them to the final four for just the fourth time ever, they’ll be as hard an out as the other three nations — Argentina, France and Spain — still standing. England’s fans have been waiting for a chance like this for decades. Now, after surviving the two toughest tests to date, those supporters could be a mere 90 minutes from seeing their team in its first World Cup final since 1966. “They spend well-earned money to come over and support us,” keeper Jordan Pickford said of England’s long-suffering diehards. “All we want to do,” he added, “is pay them back.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Another knockout game, another 120 minutes, another survival. Argentina beat Switzerland 3-1 in Kansas City on Saturday night, and the scoreline is lying to you — this was agony until the 112th minute, when Julián Álvarez decided to end it himself in stunning fashion. Here are my four takeaways from a quarterfinal that had everything, including a red card we’ll argue about for weeks: 1. Argentina Is The Cat With Nine Lives Let’s do the math on the champions’ knockout run: 120 minutes against Cape Verde, a miraculous comeback from 2-0 down against Egypt, and now 120 more against a Switzerland side that refused to die, even a man down. That’s three straight games where Argentina was thoroughly resistible — and three straight wins. Even Saturday’s early gift, Alexis Mac Allister heading in a Lionel Messi corner after 10 minutes, dissolved into an hour of sweating when Dan Ndoye equalized. Messi’s record scoring streak of nine straight World Cup games? Over. Argentina’s march? Not remotely. They’re unbeaten in 12 World Cup matches and headed to a seventh semifinal. At some point, you stop calling it luck and start calling it what it is: a team that simply refuses to be eliminated, no matter how hard it makes things for itself. 2. The Embolo Red: Harsh, Correct, or Absurd? Here’s the sequence, because you need the full absurdity. Breel Embolo went down theatrically, simulating contact that never came. The referee then booked … Leandro Paredes. Wrong decision as he never made contact with Embolo. That mistaken-identity card triggered the VAR review — and the review found the dive. Second yellow, off you go, Switzerland down to 10 for the final 50-plus minutes of their first quarterfinal since 1954. Was it technically correct? Yes. Embolo dived, and diving on a yellow is a self-inflicted wound that, by the letter of the law, warrants a yellow. But we understand the outrage, too: without the ref booking the wrong man, the simulation never gets reviewed. Right call, brutal path to it. Both things can be true. 3. Julián Álvarez, Finally. And What A Way To Announce It. We’ve spent three weeks asking where Julián Álvarez went. The Atlético Madrid striker flickered without igniting all tournament, while Messi carried the load, and the questions were getting louder by the game. Then came the 112th minute. Ten Swiss players camped behind the ball, Gregor Kobel having the game of his life, extra time slowly edging toward penalties. Álvarez collected it, opened his body, and curled an absolute painting into the top corner. No deflection, no rebound, no fortune — just a strike Kobel could only watch. It was the kind of goal you replay over and over in slow motion with your mouth agape (and comes in incredibly high in the top goals of the tournament.) If that’s the moment Álvarez wakes up, the timing is exquisite. Lautaro Martínez added the third on a breakaway in the 121st, but make no mistake: Álvarez won this game with one of the finishes of the tournament. 4. Wednesday’s Semifinal Will Be Won By Whoever Has Legs Left Pity these two semifinalists. England went to altitude at the Azteca to beat Mexico, then played 120 minutes against Norway in Miami with a heat index of 108 degrees — Jude Bellingham dragging them through with a brace, the winner off an Ørjan Nyland spill. Argentina has now played 240 minutes of extra time in three knockout games. Both teams finished Saturday looking like they’d run a marathon in a sauna, because essentially they had. The football gods have granted one mercy: Wednesday’s semifinal is in Atlanta, under a roof, with air conditioning. So the tactical question becomes brutally simple. Thomas Tuchel’s England is younger in key spots; Argentina has Messi and pedigree, but the older, heavier legs. Recovery, rotation and squad depth will decide this as much as anything drawn on a whiteboard. Whoever’s still sprinting in minute-85 goes to the final.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

A historic World Cup rivalry will be renewed on Wednesday, when England and Argentina go head-to-head in the 2026 FIFA World Cup semifinals at Atlanta Stadium. England and Argentina punched their tickets to the semifinals with wins on the final day of quarterfinals on Saturday. Now, the two powerhouses of international soccer will meet at the World Cup for the first time since 2002. Here is everything you need to know about the 2026 FIFA World Cup semifinal between England and Argentina: If there was one word to describe England’s World Cup so far, it would not be “dominant.” In fact, England has only won two of its six matches by more than one goal, and it hasn’t won by more than a single goal since the knockout stage started. And yet, it is set to compete in its fourth-ever World Cup semifinal, in large part due to something past iterations of the team have lacked: mental toughness and desperation. It starts at the top with Thomas Tuchel, who, even after positive results, unapologetically demands more from his team. But it extends to the Three Lions’ leading men, Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, who have regularly led their teams to wins with their combined seven goals in the knockout stage. Resilient? Lucky? Ordained? Call it what you want; Argentina is just happy to still be here. After a convincing group stage with three multi-goal wins, Argentina has had to fight in every second of the knockout stage to date, narrowly beating Cape Verde, Egypt and most recently Switzerland — all teams it was expected to beat comfortably. Lionel Messi has done his part, scoring a tournament-high eight goals (tied with Kylian Mbappé) and making World Cup history along the way, but his teammates have also done everything in their power to make sure Messi’s last-ever run at the tournament isn’t cut short. That unity has been a hallmark of their tournament to date, and they will need to stay united to beat a determined England side. Key Players If it weren’t for Jude Bellingham, England might not be in the semifinals. The 23-year-old midfielder has been outstanding for the Three Lions in the finals, scoring a brace against Mexico and Norway. He is the first player to score two or more goals in consecutive World Cup knockout stage matches at the same tournament since Diego Maradona in 1986. Bellingham was 15 years old the last time England made a World Cup semifinals. Now, he could be the reason it makes its first final since 1966, which is also the last — and only — time it lifted the trophy. We all know we’ve reached the end of Lionel Messi’s World Cup career. Whether it’s in the semifinal or the final, Messi will play his last-ever match at the tournament next week, closing the book on a historic World Cup career, which includes a title and the all-time records for most goals and assists. Will Messi get his storybook ending and lift the trophy for a second time, or will he bow out against an England team as desperate to reach the mountaintop as he was four years ago? We’ll find out on Wednesday. How To Watch England vs. Argentina​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

For a few days, this was the best Golden Boot race in living memory. Four legends, separated by two goals, all still alive. Then Saturday in Miami thinned the field in the most dramatic way possible. Erling Haaland is gone. Norway’s dream ended in extra time, England winning, 2-1, and the man who had scored in every single match his country played was finally, mercifully for defenders, held quiet. Seven goals, a historic run to the quarterfinals, and now a plane home. The most efficient scorer the sport has produced never got his shootout at the top. Cruel game. His conqueror complicated things too. Jude Bellingham scored twice against Norway — including the extra-time winner — to reach six goals and pull level with his own teammate, Harry Kane. So England now carries two men on six into a semifinal. Neither is out of it. Both would need a historic run over two games to catch the leaders. Not impossible. Not likely. Because the leaders are who we always suspected they’d be. Lionel Messi has eight after being held in check in the 2–1 quarterfinals win over Switzerland. Kylian Mbappé also has eight after adding to his account in the 2-0 quarterfinals win over Morocco. The same number they finished on in Qatar four years ago, when Mbappé’s hat trick in the final edged Messi by a single goal and left the Argentine without the one trophy his cabinet never held. The Golden Boot is the lone individual honor missing from the greatest résumé the game has ever seen. Four years later, here it is again, dangling in front of Messi, with the same Frenchman standing in the way. The parallels this week bordered on absurd. Both men missed a knockout penalty. Both responded by scoring anyway. Messi’s spot-kick was saved against Egypt in the round of 16 clash before he dragged Argentina back from 2-0 down with an 83rd-minute equalizer. Mbappé went the same direction from the spot against Morocco, watched Yassine Bounou save it, then curled in his eighth of the tournament twenty minutes later. Great players don’t dodge failure. They just refuse to let it be the headline. Here’s the wrinkle that decides everything: Mbappé is technically ahead. FIFA breaks tournament ties on assists, and Mbappé has three to Messi’s two. If both finish level on goals, the boot goes to France on a tiebreaker most fans have never heard of. Imagine explaining that to Just Fontaine, who scored 13 in six games in the 1958 World Cup for France with a single pair of boots and no penalties, and still holds the record no one will touch. The stakes are almost as high as the trophy itself. Messi, at 39, is the all-time World Cup scoring leader with 21 goals. Mbappé sits on 20, one behind, at 27 years old. Every goal either player scores now moves two leaderboards at once — the Golden Boot and the record book. There is no such thing as a meaningless finish for these two anymore. And the fixtures are lining up for a reunion nobody would dare script. France plays Spain in the semifinal Tuesday. If both win, Messi and Mbappé meet in the final in New York on July 19 — the ghost of Lusail in Qatar resurrected, four years and one continent later, with a Golden Boot and a World Cup on the same table. Haaland gave us the fireworks. Bellingham and Kane still lurk. But this was always going to come down to the two men who turned the 2022 final into a duel and never really stopped. Messi chasing the one award he’s yet to capture. Mbappé right there with him. Fontaine’s record is safe. Everything else is up for grabs. And we get to watch the same two titans settle it one more time.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports