Argentina 2-1 England: Messi's Late Show Reaches Final

For 85 minutes England were on their way to a World Cup final. Then Lionel Messi decided they were not. Argentina scored twice in the closing minutes in Atlanta, the 38-year-old setting up both, to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win and book a final against Spain. It was the cruellest possible ending for a Thomas Tuchel side who had done the hard part and then let it slip.

What happened in Argentina 2-1 England?

England took the lead they had earned on 55 minutes. Anthony Gordon, a menace down the left all night, cut inside and finished to make it 1-0 and silence an Atlanta crowd that had felt Argentine all evening. For half an hour it looked like being enough.

It was not. On 85 minutes, from a set piece worked to Messi, Enzo Fernández curled a left-footed strike from outside the box beyond Jordan Pickford for 1-1. Seven minutes later, deep into stoppage time, Messi floated a ball to the back post and substitute Lautaro Martínez rose to head it home for 2-1. From nowhere, Argentina were in the final.

How did Argentina turn it around?

Through the one player nobody could plan for. Messi had been quiet for an hour, starved of the ball in Lionel Scaloni’s cautious set-up, but he produced the two moments that mattered when the game asked for them. The pass for Enzo was weighted to invite the shot; the delivery for Lautaro was a captain’s ball, hung up exactly where a striker wanted it. Two touches, two assists, one final.

It was also a repeat of a pattern. This Argentina have made a habit of leaving it late all tournament, and once again the holders found another gear at the death that their opponents simply could not match.

Why is Tuchel under fire?

Because he took England’s foot off the game. Leading 1-0, Tuchel made a series of defensive substitutions and switched to a back five to see the night out. In the 21 minutes between that change and conceding the winner, England surrendered around 93% of possession — a retreat so total it invited exactly the pressure that broke them. Jude Bellingham and the midfield were pulled deeper and deeper, and a lead that looked safe at 55 minutes was gone by the 92nd. Harry Kane, England’s captain and record scorer, was left to lead a beaten side off in Atlanta, another major tournament ending a step short. The questions about the German’s game management will follow England home.

What was going on in that first half?

An ugly, ill-tempered stalemate that produced nothing. The opening 45 minutes brought no goals and not a single shot on target, but 19 fouls — seven from England, 12 from Argentina — with referee Ismail Elfath repeatedly wading in to separate shoving matches. Both sides committed a foul roughly every two and a half minutes, a rate that matched the worst of the tournament, and plenty of viewers called it the ugliest half of the whole 2026 edition. England vs Argentina came with a century of edge attached, and for 45 minutes it played out like a fight with a ball loosely involved.

What does this mean for Messi’s Golden Boot race?

It puts him top. Messi and the eliminated Kylian Mbappé both finished the semi-finals on eight goals, but the two assists against England give Messi one more than the Frenchman, and the Golden Boot is separated on that tiebreak. With Mbappé out and one more match to play, Messi leads the race for the tournament’s top-scorer award in his final World Cup — the same tournament in which he already holds the all-time goals record on 21.

Who do Argentina play in the World Cup 2026 final?

Spain, at MetLife Stadium on July 19. The holders meet the side that dismantled France in a final between the tournament’s two form teams — Messi’s Argentina against a Spain defence that has conceded once all summer. After the semi-finals reshaped the title picture, it is the fixture the tournament deserved. For the full bracket, see our knockout guide.