Argentina were ready to leave ATLANTA STADIUM with a defeat. Instead, they walked out with a place in the World Cup final after Enzo Fernández and Lautaro Martínez scored late to turn a 2-1 semifinal against England on Wednesday.
The turnaround came after Anthony Gordon had put England ahead in the second half from a cross by Morgan Rogers, a lead that looked for a long stretch like enough to send the Three Lions back toward the title match. But Fernández struck first with a long-range equalizer from Lionel Messi, and Martínez finished the job in stoppage time to seal it.
For Lionel Scaloni, the result was about more than the scoreline. He said after the match that Argentina had been ready to go home “sad, knowing that we had left everything on the pitch,” then added that after England scored, his team “really proved ourselves.” He described the recovery as proof of a culture that never writes off a match as lost, and said the game showed what football means to Argentina beyond tactics.
That mattered because England had been close to returning to a World Cup final for the first time since 1966, while Argentina kept alive a run that has already carried them through the World Cup four years ago in Qatar and Copa América triumphs in 2021 and 2024. The crowd of almost 70,000 at ATLANTA STADIUM leaned heavily toward Argentina, and the atmosphere matched the stakes as the clock moved toward the final minutes.
The sharpest detail is how late the swing came. Fernández’s equalizer arrived with five minutes left, then Martínez settled the semifinal in stoppage time, leaving England with another painful elimination and an empty route back to the final. That is also why offsides debates keep surfacing in games like this: one moment can change the entire shape of a knockout match, as in close calls that have altered European ties and tournament results before.
Argentina will face Spain on Sunday at New York New Jersey Stadium in the title match, while England moves on to a consolation game against France on Saturday in Miami. For Scaloni and his side, the question now is not whether they can survive a comeback. It is whether they can finish one more match and turn a late rescue into another trophy.
