2026 FIFA World Cup: Semifinals - Argentina vs. England

Good line up. Of course it will never happen

 

I'll give you a clue, I'm rooting for the "underdog"!

 

Lol, I'm in constant contact with Irish and Scottish friends as we support each other through the world cup, we remain strong and defiant

 

Vamos Argentina

 

For once we go into a game as underdogs, and according to the English media, massive underdogs who are pretty much useless bums who are going to get their backsides handed to them by Bellingham and Kane. Should take the pressure of our players and work in our favour.

 

According to ESPN this would be Messi biggest challange. They made it sounds as if England is 8 times winners.

Yea sure folks, facing a team that wins exactly zero trophy in almost 6 decades is defintely something special!

 

59 years of saying the same sh!t against your opponents while winning exactly zero silverware. I hope they keeps doing it for decades to come!

 

The self entitlement the English media and pundits and fans have is off the scale. They mock every league in the world that isn't the Premier League, they say every player who hasn't played in the premier league hasn't truly proved themselves and every other national team is over hyped and overated. Whilst at the same time England win f all decade after decade after decade.

 

Well of course it is Messi's biggset challenege, I mean it wasn't playing against Braizl in Copa final in the Maracana or playing against France in a world cup final, it's playing against 2 time losing euro finalists England.

 

I'll be singing the anthem again hand over heart before the game.

But if there ever was a time for Scaloni to pull a surprise it is this game. Please choose a 3-5-2. Bring in some fresher players.

Sure there will be emotion around the game. But this will boil down to tactics, choosing the right players and substitutions and taking chances when they are there.

We have to control midfield and that means I would prefer a three five two with both WBs pinching in and Paz as a secondary playmaker because they will mark or double mark Messi. We have to use the space created by that this time.

Other players have to step up. But fatigue. No matter how mentally sharp you are if you are not physically there it doesn't matter. This is the perfect opportunity to play a fresh Barco, Paz and Simeone for an hour or so.

Unfortunately I think Scaloni will sabotage efforts. Losing to England would be incredibly sickening.

 

It doesn't matter about the past RH. What counts is what is coming. We need to win this game. I said before the tournament England are improving. There are lots of overseas coaches here now. Players technical abilities are improving and you are seeing youngsters with flair now like JJ Gabriel and Max Dowman. Things never stay the same. You have to keep ahead of the curve.

Scaloni needs to wake up before he ruins everything.

 

The only reason why Argentina vs England sounds bigger than it should be is because England fans and pundits constantly creates a narrative where England is like somekind of final boss in football.

Argentina constantly having more fierce rivalry with teams like Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia , Germany and France but England just wanna be lumped into that rivalry aswell.

The rivalry ended once you look at their trophy cabinet.

 

I'd love it if Scaloni would make the changes you suggest. But he won't, because he's now in a bind isn't he, if he makes thise changes this late into the tournament and they still lose, he will be called a coward who was firghtened of England and used a formation they hadn't used before in the semi final of the world cup. So he'll double down by picking the same team as Egypt and CV and the Swiss, and when they lose he'll boast that he stuck to his guns and won't bend to outside noise of press and fans.

 

I know, I'm responding to all these English fans and pundits arrogance. These lot also has been saying the same sh!t before playing Croatia, Italy, Belgium and Italy.

 

He is right about the pace though. There is blistering pace out wide. All our goals barring the two against Egypt have been conceded on from moves starting out wide. We're great in the centre. And we are definitely weaker down the right.

Part of the issue is RDP cannot cover properly that area. A 3-5-2 would allow the left sided CB and right sided CB to cover for the WBs

The WBs themselves can act as a defence by trying to push forward. And of course the back three allows the insurance of a sweeper player to cover any breakthrough.

 

It's like when England used to bang on and on and on and on and on about their rivarly with Germany and Germans were like "we're good, we have 4 world cups, played in 8 finals and won the euros 3 times as well, but hey, you carry on"

 

This is true but you have to select on fitness and form and exploiting weaknesses in the opposition and playing to strengths.

So Scaloni needs a phone call to be reminded of these two very important points. His initial selections were made as much on sentiment as they were on fitness and form meaning players like Buendia and Perrone were omitted for RDP who has predictably been a shadow of his 2022 self.

 

I'd just post up the comments made as motivation. Look everyone this is what they think of us.

However as I said if your legs are heavy and tired this still won't help you catch up to an opponent. I hope the clinicians on the team are telling Scaloni this.

 

Thing is England, other than in the game against Croatia, where you would think England were Brazil from 1970, have been rubbish, even their own pundits have said so. Against Norway they stank the place out, but it's a different narrative when it comes to England, no talk of FIFA rigging the tournament for them, ref conspiracies.

 

I hope somebody can takes over for a while.

 

They had lackluster draw in their group game. They won narrowly all 3 KO stage games while conceiding goals much like Argentina, but then all these pundits claimed we're lucky, our defence is rubbish etc. The mirror in Englan

 

I hope the 120 minutes and heat and humidity have had some effect in the short turnaround.

 

England vs Argentina | Full Penalty Shootout | 1998 FIFA World Cup Round of 16 Drama - YouTube

 

🚨🇦🇷🇨🇭 | EXCELENTE Se reveló la charla entre Paredes y Scaloni en la previa del alargue sobre cómo organizar las marcas en ataque y liberar espacios para generar juego contra Suiza.

- Scaloni: Pero si no es marcador tuyo...
- Paredes: Por eso, porque hay un 9 ahí al lado mío,… pic.twitter.com/Flvz6aDarH

— La Derecha Diario (@laderechadiario) July 13, 2026