Argentina break England hearts to book FIFA World Cup final vs Spain | Football News

3 min readUpdated: Jul 16, 2026 02:42 AM Argentina broke England hearts with a come-from-behind victory in the second-final of the FIFA World Cup to book a final against Spain. Argentina looked like they would join last World Cup’s finals France out of the tournament till the 85th minute when they were trialing to an Anthony Gordon goal. But then Enzo Fernandez scored a long-range strike to level the scores. Then, when it looked like the game was destined for 30 more minutes of added time, Lautaro Martinez headed the ball into the net in the second minute of extra time to give Argentine the win.
In both of Argentina goals, it was Golden Boot race leader Lionel Messi who racked up an ass. Messi now has a goal or an ass in each of his last 11 World Cup games. Argentina, in fact, could have scored more goals. Twice in the game, Alexis Mac Aller hit the upright.
Argentina have now won six out of six World Cup semi-finals they have featured in.
Fernandez had pulled a rabbit out of the hat with a spectacular 85th minute curler from outside the box that beat the otherwise imperious Jordan Pickford. He was fed the ball from the right flank Messi.
Seven minutes later, Messi was in the thick of things again, delivering a vicious cross that was headed in Martinez.
On Tuesday, France had been dumped out Spain.
Earlier, the deadlock was finally broken Gordon, who completed a move to Barcelona from Newcastle United before the start of this World Cup. It was an inch-perfect cross from Morgan Rogers in the 55th minute that Gordon turned into the back of the net to put England 1-0 ahead. Just seconds later, full back Djed Spence prevented Giuliano Simeone from getting the equaliser for Argentina with a perfectly timed sliding tackle.
The first half had plenty of incidents all over the pitch but no goals to show for it. As many as 19 fouls were committed — 12 Argentina and seven England. Seven of those came in the first 10 minutes itself. The referee held back on flashing cards but in the end, he had to show it to two players in the first half, Elliot Anderson of England and Lisandro Martinez of Argentina.