England will face Argentina in a World Cup semi-final full of history, hostility and more than 60 years of wounded football.
Thomas Tuchel’s side will take on the reigning champions in Atlanta on Wednesday night in a match that will carry the weight of history, politics and national pride. Argentina’s players have already added fuel to the rivalry by singing an obscene song about the Falklands after reaching the quarter-finals.
Now, thousands of rival supporters are heading to Georgia, carrying flags, drums, old grievances and decades of anger. Police are preparing for flashpoints surrounding what threatens to become the most explosive night of the tournament. Small confrontations have already been seen between fans of England and Argentina, one of them inside the Miami stadium during the quarterfinal match against Norway.
Atlanta will bring much bigger numbers, much more pressure and much more hostility. On the pitch, 90 minutes could decide who will play in the World Cup final. But around them hangs the shadow of the Falklands War, Diego Maradona’s Hand of God, David Beckham’s red card and a rivalry in which each match seems to produce another wound.
Few matches in world football convey the same feeling of emotion. For Lionel Messi, it is also a last chance to conquer the main international opponent he is missing in his extraordinary career. At 39 years old, and almost certainly playing in his last World Cup, the man many consider the greatest footballer of all time has never faced England in a competitive international match.
While the Three Lions arrive exhausted but alive after beating Norway, it was Argentina’s post-quarterfinal celebrations after beating Switzerland that turned Wednesday night’s match into chaos. Images from the locker room showed the players chanting “Las Malvinas, for Diego and for Leo’s last”, for the Malvinas, for Diego Maradona and for Messi’s last World Cup. The chant dragged one of football’s most volatile rivalries straight into the 1982 war.
In Argentina, Las Malvinas remain a powerful nationalist symbol. Children are taught that the islands belong to Argentina. Maps depict them as their territory, and stadiums across the country are named after the Malvinas despite being more than 1,000 miles from Port Stanley.
The overwhelming majority of Falkland Islanders voted to remain British, but the dispute remains deeply rooted in Argentina’s national identity. Football has become one of its strongest expressions. Few countries invest more emotion in the World Cup. Maradona and Messi have become almost sacred figures, carrying the hopes of a nation through political turmoil, economic crisis and rampant inflation.
The unofficial anthem of this tournament, The Fourth Star, reaches its climax with the chorus: “For the Malvinas, for Diego, for Leo’s last World Cup.” For many Argentines, another title would mean much more than sporting glory. It would offer Messi the perfect send-off and preserve a national history that stretches from Maradona’s triumph in 1986 to the present.
However, England is far from the only nation desperate to stop them. Across Latin America, support has been building increasingly behind whoever takes on Argentina. From Brazil and Mexico to Chile and Uruguay, social media has been filled with fans openly declaring that they want to eliminate Lionel Scaloni’s team.
The slogan “Latin America minus Argentina” has become one of the defining songs of this World Cup. Part of that hostility comes with success. Argentina is champion, serial winner and the dominant force in the region. But the resentment runs deeper. The country has long faced accusations from its neighbors that it projects itself as more European than Latin American.
Stereotypes depicting Argentinians as arrogant or with a superiority complex have persisted for generations, rooted in the country’s history of European immigration and debates over the erasure of its indigenous and Afro-Argentine heritage. Those perceptions have been reinforced by a series of unpleasant incidents. During this tournament, Argentine fans have faced accusations of racist abuse. The streamers were apparently attacked during the matches against Cape Verde and Egypt, while the images circulated seeming to show monkey gestures directed towards him.
Separate videos showed Egypt fans being taunted and beer thrown at them after Argentina’s dramatic comeback. The controversy echoed the storm that followed the country’s 2024 Copa América triumph, when midfielder Enzo Fernández livestreamed players singing a chant mocking France’s black players for their African heritage.
Meanwhile, political disputes have only deepened the division. After England eliminated Mexico earlier in this World Cup, prominent Argentine television presenter Eduardo Feinmann declared: “I hate the Mexicans, I hate them with my soul… The envy they feel for us, not only in football but in everything.” His comments sparked fury across Mexico, prompting President Claudia Sheinbaum to condemn them as “appalling.”
Many Argentines reject that description, arguing that isolated incidents should not define a nation of more than 46.6 million inhabitants. Others accept that difficult questions remain about racism and national identity. Whatever the explanation, Argentina has become the most divisive team in the tournament. Much of the continent now seems to want anyone other than Messi to lift the trophy.
England need no lessons on why this match is important. The rivalry erupted at Wembley in 1966 when Argentine captain Antonio Rattín was sent off by German referee Rudolf Kreitlein, who accused him of “tongue violence” despite not speaking Spanish. Rattín refused to leave the field, sat on the red carpet reserved for the Queen and was finally escorted by the police after damaging an England pennant. England manager Alf Ramsey later called the Argentine players “animals” and refused to allow his team to exchange shirts.
Then came Mexico City in 1986. Four years after the Falklands War, Maradona punched Peter Shilton with the ‘Hand of God’ before scoring arguably the greatest goal in World Cup history minutes later. That defeat still stings.
England’s sense of injustice deepened in 1998 when Beckham was sent off after kicking Diego Simeone before Argentina won on penalties. The former Three Lions captain found redemption four years later, converting the penalty that secured England’s victory in Japan.
Now another chapter hopes to be written, and both sides know it could be the most dramatic yet. Striker José Manuel López, whose native region of Corrientes suffered heavy losses during the Falklands conflict, said: “From the four lines of the field outwards, it is a clash that has a lot of history, that has a lot of pain and a lot of things behind it. I think we don’t need more motivation than that.”
Defender Cristian Romero promised: “We will give our all against England. It’s football, sometimes you win or lose, but we will leave our lives on the field to reach the final again.” Coach Scaloni has tried to lower the temperature, insisting: “This is a football match, the message is that this is a football match.” Few will believe him.
More than 15,000 England fans followed their team to Miami and thousands more are heading to Atlanta. Argentina’s traveling army has once again dyed American cities blue and white. They will gather in a stadium full of sound, fury and fear. A place for the World Cup final is at stake. For England and Argentina there will also be history to resolve. When these two nations meet, football has never just been football.
