00:00Argentina vs. Switzerland, a knockout round tie that had absolutely no business going the way it did.
00:06And yet, here we are, talking about one of the most nerve-shredding, gut-punching,
00:11soul-restoring 90-plus-plus minutes of this entire World Cup.
00:16Argentina survived. They always seem to, don't they?
00:19But this time, the way they survived told you everything about what is right and wrong with this team heading
00:25into the semifinal.
00:26Now, every flaw was on full display. Every quality, too.
00:30It was a mess and it was magnificent, sometimes at the exact same time.
00:35Let's start with a moment that has set the entire football world on fire.
00:39Not just the goal, not just the timing of it, but what Julian Alvarez said after scoring it.
00:46112 minutes. Extra time. Deep into extra time.
00:50When legs are gone, when lungs are burning and every muscle in your body is screaming at you to stop.
00:55That is the moment Alvarez picked to produce a strike that will live in this tournament forever.
01:01And when it was done, when Argentina were through, this man walked up to the microphones and said,
01:07We will do absolutely everything to make sure Lionel Messi wins the World Cup again.
01:12He said every single game is a battle for him.
01:15And the first thing he did after scoring that goal was run straight to Messi and hold him.
01:20I don't have the words for that. I genuinely don't.
01:24Football has given us a lot this World Cup.
01:26Drama. Upsets. Heartbreak.
01:29But nothing has hit quite like watching Julian Alvarez talk about his leader with that level of devotion.
01:35Here is a man who plays for one of the biggest clubs on the planet,
01:38who has won major trophies, who is well and truly in the prime of his career,
01:43and his single greatest ambition in this moment is to hand the World Cup back to Lionel Messi.
01:48You cannot script that. You absolutely cannot script that.
01:53And if you tried, nobody would ever believe it.
01:55Now let us talk about the game itself.
01:58Because Argentina, I love them.
02:00But they made this so much harder than it needed to be.
02:03McAllister put them in front inside the first ten minutes with a brilliant header from a Messi cross.
02:09Great start. Perfect start.
02:11You take the lead early. You settle your nerves.
02:14You control the game.
02:15You add a second and you see it out.
02:17Simple, clean, comfortable.
02:19Except that is not how Argentina operate, is it?
02:22Scaloni set this team up with the exact same eleven that played the previous match.
02:27Four midfielders.
02:28McAllister, Paredes, Enzo Fernandez, and DePaul.
02:32All in the middle of the park.
02:33You would think that with that kind of midfield depth,
02:36Argentina would dominate possession, control the tempo, and make life very difficult for Switzerland.
02:42You would think.
02:43Instead, what happened was, Argentina went one nil up,
02:46and then completely switched off from an attacking mindset.
02:50They sat back, they absorbed, they invited pressure,
02:53and they kept waiting for Switzerland to make a mistake.
02:56One goal up, ten men behind the ball,
02:58playing like they were protecting a three-goal cushion that simply did not exist.
03:03Murat Yakin came into this game with a clear plan.
03:06The Swiss were disciplined, they were organized,
03:09they pressed in the right moments,
03:11they threatened in behind on Argentina's right side,
03:14which has been a recurring problem all tournament,
03:17and they kept pushing and pushing until they eventually found their way through.
03:21When that equalizer came,
03:23nobody watching could honestly say they were surprised.
03:26Argentina had been asking for it for over an hour.
03:29The red card controversy changed everything.
03:32Let me explain what happened here,
03:34because there has been a lot of noise about it.
03:37Bril Embolo went down inside the Argentina area
03:40in a situation where a challenge was coming from Paredes.
03:44The challenge never actually landed.
03:46Embolo anticipated it,
03:48threw his entire body to the ground,
03:50and went down theatrically
03:51in a way that nobody watching could misread.
03:54That is simulation.
03:56That is a dive, completely see-through.
03:59Now, Paredes received a yellow card in the initial call,
04:02but because of the mistaken identity protocol
04:05FIFA introduced this World Cup,
04:07the referee had the ability to go to the monitor
04:10and review whether the correct player was punished.
04:13When he checked the footage,
04:14he saw exactly what we all saw.
04:17Embolo manufactured the contact.
04:19He went to ground deliberately
04:20to win a foul and get an opposition player carded.
04:24The original decision was reversed.
04:26Here is where it gets complicated.
04:28Embolo already had a yellow card from earlier in the match.
04:31So when the simulation was confirmed on the monitor
04:34and the booking was switched to him,
04:36it became his second yellow card.
04:39Second yellow means red.
04:41Embolo was off.
04:42Switzerland went down to 10 men.
04:44And honestly,
04:45you look at it from a sporting perspective
04:47and it hurts a little.
04:48Not because Argentina did not deserve to go through,
04:51but because Embolo was one of Switzerland's
04:54most dangerous players
04:55and the manner of his exit was painful to watch.
04:59He was in tears coming off the pitch.
05:01He knew he had let his teammates down
05:03at the absolute worst possible moment.
05:06Argentina had their man advantage.
05:08Now use it.
05:09They did not use it.
05:11At least not immediately.
05:13Scaloni's substitutions were slow
05:15and the mentality of sitting deep
05:16did not change quickly enough.
05:18Against 10 men,
05:20you still have to go and take the game by the throat.
05:23You have to stretch the opposition,
05:25pull them wide,
05:26create overloads in dangerous areas,
05:28and make the extra man count.
05:30Argentina were still playing narrow,
05:32still cautious,
05:33and it was genuinely nerve-wracking
05:35because Switzerland were not just defending for a draw.
05:38They were still threatening on the counter
05:40with whatever energy they had left in their legs.
05:43The thing that changed the entire momentum
05:45was Thiago Almada coming onto the pitch.
05:48This young man injected something into Argentina
05:51that had been missing for most of the evening.
05:53He started running at players.
05:55He started shooting without hesitation.
05:57He had the audacity to take responsibility
06:00in moments where others were looking around
06:02for someone else to step up.
06:04Once Almada arrived,
06:06you started seeing Alvarez attempt shots.
06:08You saw Nico Gonzalez threaten.
06:10You saw Messi create with a bit more purpose.
06:13The energy shifted.
06:15The game finally started breathing again.
06:18Kobell in the Swiss goal had a brilliant match,
06:20it must be said.
06:21He pulled off saves that kept Switzerland alive
06:24much longer than they deserved to be.
06:26But the dam was always going to break eventually.
06:29And then it happened.
06:30The move built through the left.
06:32The ball found its way to Alvarez,
06:34and he hit it.
06:35First time, clean, sharp,
06:37absolutely unstoppable.
06:39One hundred and twelve minutes.
06:41Game over.
06:42Done.
06:42The stadium erupted,
06:44and somewhere in the noise and the chaos,
06:46Alvarez sprinted straight to his captain.
06:49Lautaro Martinez added a third
06:51in the closing moments from a deflection,
06:53coming off a moment where someone else on the pitch
06:56was almost certainly trying to find Messi
06:58with a final pass.
06:59Of course they were.
07:00That is just how this team operates.
07:03That is the DNA of this squad.
07:05Now Argentina look ahead to England in the semifinal,
07:08and I want to be very clear.
07:10This performance will not cut it against England.
07:14Bukayo Saka on the right,
07:15Rashford on the left,
07:17Jude Bellingham floating through the lines,
07:19Harry Kane leading,
07:21and Declan Rice sitting and controlling everything from deep.
07:24England will punish Argentina's right side repeatedly
07:27if Scaloni does not find a solution.
07:30De Paul cannot keep covering that channel alone
07:33for 90-plus minutes at this stage of a World Cup.
07:36Nico Paz sat on the bench for this entire match
07:39with his boots on,
07:40ready and waiting,
07:42and never came on.
07:43This kid has the ability to be the Enzo Fernandez of 2022
07:47for this squad,
07:48the impact substitute who changes the game from the bench,
07:52and he is just sitting there watching.
07:54Scaloni needs to be braver.
07:56He needs to give Messi more options around him,
07:59stretch the opposition,
08:00use the full width of the pitch,
08:02let the key legs rest before they break completely.
08:06Several starters just played another 120 minutes,
08:09and England have been watching every single second of it.
08:12But all of that,
08:14every single concern,
08:15and every valid criticism,
08:17none of it matters right now.
08:18Because right now,
08:20we have Lionel Messi removing his shirt in pure celebration
08:23after a comeback win in extra time
08:26at the FIFA World Cup 2026.
08:2839 years old,
08:30every trophy this sport can possibly offer
08:33already sitting in his cabinet,
08:34and still here,
08:36still fighting,
08:37still dragging this team through moments
08:39that would have broken anyone else on the planet.
08:41One more win,
08:43and Argentinian...
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