England play Argentina tonight, and the winner gets Spain
England face Argentina in Atlanta tonight and the winner goes to the final against Spain. Kick-off time, where to watch from Portugal, and why Messi has somehow never played England at a World Cup.
Twenty-four years after their last World Cup meeting, England and Argentina collide again — and this time a place in the final is sitting on the table. Spain have been waiting since yesterday, after seeing off France 2-0, and will spend the day watching this one with a notebook open.
So what time is England vs Argentina, and where can you watch it?
The match is today, 15 July, at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, kicking off at 19:00 local time — which lands in the small hours in Portugal. Worth checking the exact time on the official FIFA schedule, the one place the information never contradicts itself.
Who actually turns up in better shape?
Argentina are the defending champions and Messi is having a ridiculous tournament: eight goals, a Golden Boot contender, and now 21 World Cup goals, a record nobody can see the ceiling of. At 39. The detail Argentines would rather not dwell on is that since the group stage — which they strolled through, beating Algeria 3-0, Austria 2-0 and Jordan 3-1 — they have suffered in every single game. Won them all. Suffered in all of them.
England got here the other way round: unconvincing for long stretches, but with two players quietly solving everything. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham have six goals each, the captain filling his boots in the group stage and Bellingham showing up precisely when it started to hurt, in the knockouts. This is a team that isn’t in love with itself — and against Argentina, that might count as a virtue.
And why is everyone making such a fuss about this one?
Because it’s England vs Argentina. The history is there, the grudges are there, the rivalry needs no warming up. And there’s one detail that only becomes obvious now: this is the first time Messi has faced England at a World Cup. In a career with everything in it, this was the gap.
The winner meets Spain on Sunday, 19 July, at MetLife Stadium — we’ve already laid out when the final is and how to watch it from Portugal. One of these teams will go to sleep tonight thinking the hard part is behind them. Historically, that’s always the one that’s wrong.
By Vasco Almada
Image: Bryan Berlin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
