England v Argentina | World Cup Semi Final | 15 July 2026

thickandthin63

MarcusH26 said:

There is an interesting point to be made. Where's the next England striker coming from? The likes of Delap aren't going to be up to it and okay Kane and Watkins will probably be around for the next Euros but there's not a lot out there. Plenty of exciting wide and attacking midfielder talent but not an out and out goalscorer. 

Strikers are the most wanted ,they win you trophies,that is why all the top club cannot await the development of home grown talent,and scour the world for the top players.This of course limits any opportunity that may be available for any English prospects coming through.

thickandthin63

Laddick01 said:

Minor moment that really killed our momentum yesterday. 

Pickford, in the 59th minute, pissed about with the ball and we nearly shit the bed.

We never recover after that. 

Pickford pissed about with the ball quite a lot over the last few weeks,I dont think he is suited to this "total" football game.

soapboxsam

I feel sorry for CL members born after 1961 and up to 1966? 

In '66' they were too young to remember and by 2054 when we next win the World cup they will be too old to remember🤔 5 minutes after the Trophy has been lifted.🙄

shine166

Got sucked in to the shit housery early doors and bottled it once we'd taken the lead. Scoreline could have ended up a lot worse than it did.

carly burn

Looking forward to finally seeing watkins and Mainoo on Saturday. 

MuttleyCAFC

Pickford had his good and bad moments. I know people said he had do but I think a top keeper knows the ball is going over when he touched it for a corner which led to the second goal. 

swords_alive

thickandthin63 said:

Laddick01 said:

Minor moment that really killed our momentum yesterday. 

Pickford, in the 59th minute, pissed about with the ball and we nearly shit the bed.

We never recover after that. 

Pickford pissed about with the ball quite a lot over the last few weeks,I dont think he is suited to this "total" football game.

Agree wholly. I was wincing quite often when he got the ball as I felt he thought he was a capable outfield player and may have forgotten he is a goalkeeper first and foremost. Fair enough that he went on to make a couple of great saves, but point stands.

DOUCHER

killerandflash said:

After the criticism of Southgate being too defensive, Tuchel basically had a free hit if he had taken a positive approach in the last 30, as that's exactly what most fans and pundits had asked for.

Instead, however much he tries to deflect the blame, his first sub set an entirely negative tone. Once Konsa came on for Gordon, the Argentinians knew that England weren't going to pose an attacking threat, and that their erratic CBs (both on yellows) wouldn't have to worry about fast breakaways. 

And that Messi would now have acres of space to work in.

100%. The whole football world knows that the most likely time to concede is after you have scored and yes, we retreated, sat back and weathered the storm. You do that and then adjust your tactics to accept Argentina were throwing caution to the wind and it was going to continue so leaving gaps and a lot of space to run into. It was a case of who would score first, there was no way it was going to finish 1-0. The argies had pressed the panic button that often gets pressed with 5 -10 minutes to go but they went early. What did we do? Take any pace we had off going forwards and effectively make it impossible to capitalise on the argies pushing on. Utterly, utterly wrong and inexcusable from the manager - he had rashford, saka, ezze, madoueke - loads of pace who could have galloped into their half. Shocking football management. We all know this so what was he playing at? We jettisoned the frilly / possession type midfield players to play the power and pace players on the break. This should have been exactly the type of scenario we were set up for as tuchel kept intimating when we were playing teams that sat in.  He has to go.     

CAFCsayer

I think tunchels subs were inexcusable yesterday and the loss is on him... But I think he should go if Pep can be tempted, which I reckon he could be, if he can't I think we should give him the next euros

AberystwythAddick

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

cabbles said:

Deep down I think we don’t have the talent/quality/experience as there has been some pretty ropey moments/performances during the tournament, and we’ve relied on Bellingham to pull us through and in a similar vein Kane (you could make the same argument about Argentina given Egypt and Switzerland), but it’s the context of last night that has me still seething.  We got 30 minutes from a final and when we took the lead, the game was tight and our goal was class.  The first few minutes of going ahead, keep it tight of course.  But what followed was unforgivable and for me on the manager.  Do I think on balance of the tournament we should be in the final, probably not.  Argentina did deserve to go through last night, but it’s only after we completely imploded in how we set up 

I concur with AFKA re watching a Charlton game.  I messaged my mates before they equalised and said it’s reminding me of our league one playoff final against Orient.  We led, Jones decided to shut up shop and we saw it out.  The difference was we were playing Orient, not Argentina 

I don’t see anyway back for Tuchel but it appears the FA is backing him.  Kane has potentially got the 2028 Euros in him, but the next WC is beyond him.  We’ve got absolutely no-one to replace him.  A huge hole to fill

I think we’re probably now going to have to go through a period of a rebuild.  What a shame for Bellingham given his age and talent.  If we just had 2/3 more of his ilk then we’d be a force.  

I wouldn't say we need a rebuild at all. There's still a lot of young players there for 4 years time. Trafford, O'Reilly, Spence, Quansah, Anderson, Bellingham, Rogers, Mainoo, Saka, Gordon will all be under 30 at the next world cup. Konsa, Guehi and Rice won't exactly be past it either.

There's also players that didn't make it like Hall, Lewis-Skelly, Livramento, Foden, Palmer, Wharton, Alex Scott, plus emerging talents like Ngumoha and Dowman. 

So i think in most areas of the pitch we will be fine but of course the biggest problem we have is (like you say) we don't have any half decent striker at all coming through to replace Kane. 

If Kane doesn’t show up in the important games then we don’t need to replace him. 

Look at Spain. They done it without a 60 goal a year striker. 

SoundAsa£

I admit this opinion is highly sceptical but I seriously believe Harry McGuire would have cleared the cross that led to their winner.
I always thought it was a mistake leaving him back home.

2121

Bellingham was class when he was up top for madrid before mbappe arrived. 

johnnyhumphrey

Am I alone in thinking Pickford could have punched the ball clear to prevent the header for their second instead of staying on his line to try to save it?
And why were the defenders grouped in the area leaving Messi alone on the right wing---why wasn't he still man-marked than given so much freedom?

thickandthin63

CAFCsayer said:

I think tunchels subs were inexcusable yesterday and the loss is on him... But I think he should go if Pep can be tempted, which I reckon he could be, if he can't I think we should give him the next euros

I dont think Pep would come,I dont think he could accept a situation where he hasnt got a club that can just buy him who he wants.He would have to make do with what he has and couldnt cope.

2121

johnnyhumphrey said:

Am I alone in thinking Pickford could have punched the ball clear to prevent the header for their second instead of staying on his line to try to save it?
And why were the defenders grouped in the area leaving Messi alone on the right wing---why wasn't he still man-marked than given so much freedom?

Pickford is marmite by the minute. One minute you love him the next you fear for life. Not sure im convinced , but he made some good saves, but did he or were they poor shots? Its so confusing. Which cannot help our shite defence. 

Exiled_Addick

Callumcafc said:

Has anymore been made of this in coverage back home? If not, I am surprised because it's pretty scandalous, imo..

I don't want it to sound like excuses or sour grapes, because I know that it changes nothing about the fundamental flaw that was England's disastrous game management and England were 90% likely to lose that game before it got to penalties, but, if given a second look at this, there's not a referee in the world that wouldn't have overturned the winning goal and awarded a free kick to England.

When you also compare it to the disallowed Egypt goal against Argentina, it looks even worse, plus this was in England's penalty area and basically the next touch of the ball was Messi's assist, not the other end of the pitch to where the goal was scored from like Egypt's.

The biggest difference was the Argentinian rolled around like he'd been shot and Spence tried to play on but the impact and pain of the foul very much limited his ability to follow and close down Messi.

1) refereeing an incident in that fashion, because Spence got up and the Argentinian didn't, only goes to encourage more playacting which is an ever growing cancer at the top the of the game, and 2) as much as I'm not a conspiracies guy, this does absolutely nothing to dispel the theory that Argentina have been engineered a route to the final with the help of preferential refereeing.

I can only believe that either VAR did not review it or they did review and maliciously chose to ignore it despite the clear evidence to the contrary. I simply cannot believe that they would have looked at it and concluded, in good faith, that it wasn't a foul. Either reason raises serious suspicions of collusion or corruption.

The only real debate is whether or not it was enough to send Messi off.

Laddick01

I think there would’ve been more uproar with the refereeing had we looked even semi capable after the goal.

Even if that one had been ruled out, they’d have scored another before the end of extra time. 

That one with Spence may be a foul - would have to see the replays.

My only real issue with the ref other than that was how he allowed Argentina to foul without punishment. 

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ct_addick

Romero should have got a red card for his first challenge on Anderson…punched him in back of head 

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Exiled_Addick

ct_addick said:

Romero should have got a red card for his first challenge on Anderson…punched him in back of head 

Another one not even reviewed, was a clear booking and probable red, as you say,

ct_addick

Got what we deserved after going 1-0 up….sat too  deep and shit subs…should fire Tuchel…was he any better than Southgate ? Nope

sam3110

The Messi foul thing is never going to be reviewed, unless of course it was the other way around and Spence stood on Messi's foot before we scored a winner. 

Spence should have followed the protocol and sent himself flying to the floor screaming in agony like he had been shot though, might have made them look at it a bit more

fenaddick

The sitting deep happened before the subs, he then indulged it. Would it have been different with Gordon still on the pitch or someone like Saka or Watkins to run forward? Maybe but it’s also likely they’d have naturally sat back too as everyone else was. It’s the issue with never facing good sides until you reach a tournament 

addickson

Although I'm a "sweaty" I've never really been anyone but England. However, I was pleased at the result last night simply because I'll get one more chance to watch Lionel Messi - in an era when physicality seems to be the desired characteristic its an utter joy to watch his skill and intelligence.

guinnessaddick

Exiled_Addick said:

Callumcafc said:

Has anymore been made of this in coverage back home? If not, I am surprised because it's pretty scandalous, imo..

I don't want it to sound like excuses or sour grapes, because I know that it changes nothing about the fundamental flaw that was England's disastrous game management and England were 90% likely to lose that game before it got to penalties, but, if given a second look at this, there's not a referee in the world that wouldn't have overturned the winning goal and awarded a free kick to England.

When you also compare it to the disallowed Egypt goal against Argentina, it looks even worse, plus this was in England's penalty area and basically the next touch of the ball was Messi's assist, not the other end of the pitch to where the goal was scored from like Egypt's.

The biggest difference was the Argentinian rolled around like he'd been shot and Spence tried to play on but the impact and pain of the foul very much limited his ability to follow and close down Messi.

1) refereeing an incident in that fashion, because Spence got up and the Argentinian didn't, only goes to encourage more playacting which is an ever growing cancer at the top the of the game, and 2) as much as I'm not a conspiracies guy, this does absolutely nothing to dispel the theory that Argentina have been engineered a route to the final with the help of preferential refereeing.

I can only believe that either VAR did not review it or they did review and maliciously chose to ignore it despite the clear evidence to the contrary. I simply cannot believe that they would have looked at it and concluded, in good faith, that it wasn't a foul. Either reason raises serious suspicions of collusion or corruption.

The only real debate is whether or not it was enough to send Messi off.

Believe the photo to be fake. Shows Messi stepping on Spence’s right leg, when Spence gets up, he’s limping on his left.

Croydon

thickandthin63 said:

Laddick01 said:

Minor moment that really killed our momentum yesterday. 

Pickford, in the 59th minute, pissed about with the ball and we nearly shit the bed.

We never recover after that. 

Pickford pissed about with the ball quite a lot over the last few weeks,I dont think he is suited to this "total" football game.

Punted the ball out for throw ins and goal kicks after we scored on multiple occasions. One of the reasons we had 12% possession after scoring was because of his dogshit distribution 

CharltonManor1966

Just heard Martinez defending their antics with the 'malvinas' banner.
For a bloke who earns his living in this country that is quite shocking and something needs to be done.

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DamoNorthStand

I must say, I was shocked by how it the Falklands antics united the house back home. Every party, every MP, be it left or right leaning has gone in on them.

But I am not angry. Far from it, I am immensely satisfied.

Even in their moment of supposed glory, all they can think about is us completely and utterly pulverizing their troops and sending them crying back home.

Have another cry Argies because you try it again then exactly the same thing will happen.

Bunch of losers.