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tlanta — July 15, 2026. Kickoff is 7pm GMT, 3pm on the clocks in Georgia, and by the time Wednesday's over, one of these two teams will be preparing for Sunday's final in New Jersey.
The other will be flying home with a very familiar feeling.
England and Argentina haven't faced each other since 2005 a friendly in Geneva that England won late, Michael Owen and then Wayne Rooney doing the damage.
Twenty-one years is a long time for a rivalry this loud to stay quiet. Diego Maradona's fist beat Peter Shilton to a header in Mexico City in 1986. Twenty years before that, England beat Argentina at Wembley on their way to the only World Cup they've ever won. There was a 2-2 draw in Saint-Étienne in '98 that Argentina somehow won on penalties, and a tight 1-0 for England in the 2002 group stage. Add it up and it's the sixth time these two have met at a World Cup. Fifteenth time overall. England have three wins in ninety minutes to Argentina's one. None of that will matter much once the whistle goes.
Neither side has looked especially convincing getting here, for what it's worth.
Argentina are unbeaten in twelve World Cup games, a run stretching back to that opening-match loss in Qatar, and the defending-champions tag is real. But Cape Verde took them to extra time. So did Switzerland.
Egypt had them 2-0 down in the round of 16 before Scaloni's side dragged themselves level and won it anyway. Messi didn't score against the Swiss first time all tournament though the assist for Mac Allister's opener did enough talking for him.
England's path has been messier, honestly. A group stage nobody will remember fondly. A round-of-32 scare against DR Congo that needed Kane to bail them out. Then Mexico City: down to ten men, somehow still winning 3-2 at altitude, in a round-of-16 tie that shouldn't have been that close.
Bellingham's brace against Norway coming from behind, winning it in extra time is arguably the only reason Tuchel's side are even here. Between Bellingham and Kane, that's twelve of England's thirteen goals this summer. Make of that what you will.
Jordan Henderson's tournament is over wrist surgery after the knock he picked up in Mexico City. Reece James, a fitness doubt for weeks, is expected to start at right-back after finally being cleared by England's medical staff, a relief given how often that spot has been shuffled around already.
Declan Rice, who wasn't right against Norway while carrying an illness, is reportedly fine now. Saka starts. Gordon probably keeps his place over Rashford on the left. Kane leads the line, as ever.
There's been chatter in the Argentine press about Scaloni switching to a back three.
Doesn't really fit his pattern, though he tends to tinker at the edges rather than blow things up, so don't bank on it. More likely: Giuliano Simeone gets a look on the right to take some of the creative burden off Messi.
Jordan Henderson's tournament is over — wrist surgery after the knock he picked up in Mexico City.
Reece James, a fitness doubt for weeks, is expected to start at right-back after finally being cleared by England's medical staff, a relief given how often that spot has been shuffled around already. Declan Rice, who wasn't right against Norway while carrying an illness, is reportedly fine now. Saka starts. Gordon probably keeps his place over Rashford on the left. Kane leads the line, as ever.
There's been chatter in the Argentine press about Scaloni switching to a back three.
Doesn't really fit his pattern, though he tends to tinker at the edges rather than blow things up, so don't bank on it. More likely: Giuliano Simeone gets a look on the right to take some of the creative burden off Messi.
Betting markets have England as slight favourites, somewhere around +160 depending where you look, with Argentina out to +175 or so.
Team news filtered through steadily over the afternoon GMT — James and Rogers both confirmed in, Henderson confirmed out — and by 17:44 GMT most outlets had shifted into full live-blog mode as both squads arrived at the stadium. Kickoff itself: 19:00 GMT, 3pm ET, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Whoever wins plays Spain on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. That part's already settled.
Spain beat France 2-0 in Dallas on Tuesday Oyarzabal from the penalty spot in the first half, Porro adding a second just after the hour with a tidy give-and-go in a game that was billed as the final before the final and, for France at least, didn't come close to living up to it.
Messi is thirty-nine. If Argentina lose on Wednesday, this is almost certainly his last World Cup match. England, meanwhile, haven't reached a final since 1966, and this is already their fourth semi-final in the last four cycles which either means the golden generation talk is finally about to pay off, or it means nothing until somebody actually wins something. Wednesday starts settling that argument, one way or the other.
