DEFENDING champion Argentina survived the feisty Switzerland in extra time to book a semifinal ticket in the Fifa World Cup before the 69,045 fans in attendance at the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Saturday (Sunday, July 12, 2026, PH time).
Tied at 1-1 for much of the second half and extra time, Argentina pulled off another trick from the bag with Julián Álvarez scoring the go-ahead goal while Lautaro Martínez added another one with seconds left in
extra time.
Argentina will face England in the semifinals on Wednesday (Thursday, PH time) at the Atlanta Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Three Lions made it to the semis after beating Norway, 2-1, in their separate match earlier in the day.
“We’re among the best four,” Alvarez said in an ESPN report, “so we’re meeting our objectives and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. The whole match was hard and we would have loved to have the win earlier, but we tried to get the win however
we could.
This was not the first time in this year’s World Cup that Argentina were on the brink of elimination, but they managed to pull off a fightback that turned their
fate around.
Argentina needed extra time to beat Cape Verde, a miraculous comeback from a 0-2 deficit against Egypt in the Round of 16 and a late surge against Switzerland.
It’s the fourth title for Argentina in the Fifa World Cup that Messi and company are chasing this year. The country won in 1978, 1986 and 2022.
Meanwhile, France and Spain play in a separate semifinal match, a day before the Argentina-England duel. / RSC
