England versus Argentina.
The historical, heavyweight bout between two international footballing titans with a sensitive history between them promised drama, and it delivered — just not the way the Three Lions hoped.
55 minutes into the match, and England were in heaven. Anthony Gordon got on the end of Morgan Rogers’ whipped cross from the right flank, finding the back of an empty net. It looked as if England were finally ready to exorcise their 2018 World Cup semifinal demons where they suffered
a gut-wrenching 2-1 defeat against Croatia after taking an early lead. But history has a funny way of repeating itself.
In an eerily similar turn of events, Thomas Tuchel’s men imploded, conceding two goals to an Argentinian side that simply refused to give up.
To rub salt into England’s wounds, OptaJoe pointed out a particularly harrowing statistic.
2 – There are just two occasions of a team scoring first in the semi-final but not reaching the final of the FIFA World Cup in the 21st century – both of them are England (vs Croatia in 2018 and Argentina in 2026).
England were hoping to make history in their World Cup redemption match against Lionel Scaloni’s side by reaching the final for the first time in 60 years. Well, England cemented their place in the history books, but unfortunately for a nation of expectant fans — it was on the wrong side.
Join the conversation!
Sign up for a user account and get:
- New, improved notifications system!
- Fewer ads
- Create community posts
- Comment on articles, community posts
- Rec comments, community posts
