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A major confrontation is expected in the semi-finals
The 2026 World Cup semi-final will give Lionel Messi the match he has been missing in his international career as he faces England for the first time in an Argentina shirt when the two teams meet next Wednesday in Atlanta, USA.
This match is considered one of the greatest classics of world football, especially since the historic clash between the two teams in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup, when Diego Armando Maradona scored two goals, one of which was a handball, to give Argentina a 2-1 victory.
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Despite Messi’s long career, England remained the only major team he did not face with the Albiceleste, whether in official or friendly matches or even in the youth group stages, until the much-anticipated semi-final arrived and finally gave him this encounter.
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More than 40 thousand readers of the site TyC Sports Argentinians voted England as the top major European opponent they would like to see in a friendly against Argentina in a 2024 poll before the showdown finally reaches, but on a much bigger occasion, a World Cup semi-final.
The last meeting between the two teams dates back to a friendly match in Geneva, Switzerland on 12 November 2005, which witnessed Messi’s presence with the team delegation, but he watched it from the stands after being sent off in his first international match against Hungary.
Messi was 18 at the time and watched his country take a two-goal lead through Hernan Crespo and Roberto Ayala, after Wayne Rooney had scored a stoppage time goal for England, before England turned the score around with two Michael Owen goals in five minutes to seal a 3-2 victory.
