England and Argentina set up a blockbuster World Cup semi-final showdown on Saturday after battling past Norway and Switzerland to book their passage to the last four.
In sweltering Miami, two goals from Jude Bellingham gave England a nervy 2-1 extra-time victory over Norway to send the Three Lions into the semi-finals for only the fourth time in history.
Defending champions Argentina later sealed their place in the last four after a nail-biting 3-1 win over 10-man Switzerland at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium.
Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez scored in extra time for Argentina, who had been on the ropes after a second-half equaliser from Switzerland’s Dan Ndoye cancelled out Alexis Mac Allister’s early opener for the holders.
The two results mean that England and Argentina will renew one of the World Cup’s most iconic rivalries when they face each other in the semi-finals in Atlanta on Wednesday.
The winner of that game will take on the victor of France’s semi-final with Spain, who meet in Texas on Tuesday, in the final on July 19.
– Angry Tuchel –
Furious England manager Thomas Tuchel said his team would need to make a drastic improvement if they were to have any chance of progressing beyond the semi-finals.
In intense Florida heat and humidity, a shaky England fell behind on 36 minutes through Andreas Schjelderup’s rasping shot from the left.
But England got a huge slice of luck in first-half stoppage time when Bellingham equalised after an attack that began when a goal kick from Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland appeared to hit an overhead camera cable.
Norway’s players protested to no avail and the goal stood. The Norwegians also had a goal controversially disallowed before Bellingham then bagged England’s winner in extra-time.
“We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today,” Tuchel said afterwards.
“The result is fantastic. The last four is amazing, but not happy with the performance… we were very lucky today.”
While FIFA later issued a statement saying there was “no evidence” the ball had hit the cable before England’s first goal, Norway coach Stale Solbakken was adamant.
“That was unlucky for for us,” Solbakken said. “The ball fell straight down from the sky, so it changed its direction. But we can’t do anything about that. I don’t think we will play the game again. So, that’s that’s how it is.”
– Argentina dig deep –
In Kansas City, Argentina were taken to extra time for the second time this tournament before battling to a 3-1 win over Switzerland.
The world champions took the lead after just 10 minutes, with Lionel Messi’s outswinging corner finding the head of Mac Allister.
The Liverpool midfielder leapt up behind Switzerland defender Manuel Akanji and steered his header past Switzerland goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.
Yet Switzerland rallied after that early setback, with their physicality and well-organised defence frustrating the Argentina attack.
As the match wore on, Switzerland grew in confidence and enjoyed their best period of pressure in the second half against increasingly weary-looking opponents.
On 67 minutes the Swiss breakthrough came.
Ndoye worked a deft one-two with Ricardo Rodriguez down the left and then shot past Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to make it 1-1.
But with Argentina rocking the momentum swung back in the South Americans’ favour when Swiss forward Breel Embolo was shown his second yellow card and sent off in tears after a VAR review.
Switzerland bravely held out to take the match to extra-time, and looked to be poised to take the game to penalty shoot-outs.
But Alvarez curled a magnificent screamer into the top corner in the 112th minute to break the deadlock, and then in the dying moments Martinez finished a counter-attack to complete the win.
“Obviously you have to suffer, you have to know how to suffer,” said Alvarez after scoring his first goal of the tournament. “That’s how the matches are playing out right now.”
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni admitted his team had had “many many difficulties”.
He added: “Sometimes we couldn’t find the solutions, but today we had luck on our side because one of their players was sent off.”