England and Argentina will meet at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Wednesday, one win from a World Cup final, and the whole weight of their shared history travels with them. Kickoff is 3pm local time, with FIFA listing the venue as Atlanta Stadium. It is their first World Cup meeting since 2002, a 24-year wait. And for all the names tied to this fixture over the decades, one has never been part of it: Lionel Messi will face England at a World Cup for the first time in his career.
Some rivalries turn on form. This one turns on memory.
The ghosts of 1986
Start with the Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, 22 June 1986. Argentina won the quarter-final 2-1, and Diego Maradona settled it inside four astonishing minutes. First came the Hand of God on 51 minutes, a left hand raised to the ball that the officials never saw, so the goal stood. It remains one of the game's great controversies. Then, on roughly 55 minutes, the Goal of the Century: Maradona collected the ball inside his own half and ran through half the England side before rounding Peter Shilton. Gary Lineker pulled one back, but it was not enough. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, beating West Germany in the final. Maradona took the Golden Ball, Lineker the Golden Boot.
Beckham, and the road back
Twelve years later came Saint-Etienne. The round-of-16 tie finished 2-2 after extra time on 30 June 1998, and Argentina went through 4-3 on penalties. A 23-year-old David Beckham had been sent off early in the second half for a petulant kick at Diego Simeone, and much of England spent that summer blaming him. His reply arrived in 2002. In the group stage at the Sapporo Dome, Beckham stepped up to a 44th-minute penalty, won after a foul on Michael Owen, and buried it. England won 1-0. Redemption, of a sort.
Both sides arrive the hard way
Both semi-finalists needed extra time to get here, and both did it on 11 July. Argentina saw off Switzerland 3-1. Mac Allister opened the scoring on 10 minutes before Dan Ndoye levelled on 67, but Switzerland spent much of the night a man down after Breel Embolo's red card. Argentina made it tell late on: Julian Alvarez lashed in a long-range golazo on 112 minutes and Lautaro Martinez added a third in the final seconds. England edged Norway 2-1, with a Jude Bellingham brace after Andreas Schjelderup had put Norway in front. Bellingham's winner came early in extra time, bundled home off a rebound from a Morgan Rogers effort. It is England's first World Cup semi-final since 2018.
A final on the line
The stakes could hardly be higher. The winner goes through to the final on Sunday 19 July at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey; the loser drops into the third-place match in Miami on 18 July. Argentina arrive as reigning champions, chasing back-to-back crowns after their triumph in 2022. England are still hunting a first World Cup title since 1966. The other semi-final, France against Spain, is in Dallas, its winner still to be decided, so neither side yet knows who might await in the final.
For now, the focus is one loaded fixture and its oldest ghosts. Maradona is gone, Beckham's red card is a quarter of a century old, and Messi has never faced England on this stage. On Wednesday in Atlanta, all of it arrives in the same place.
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