Argentina 3-1 Switzerland — Alvarez Fires Champs Into Semis
- Jul 12
- 4 min read
Argentina’s World Cup title defense is still alive, but the champions were made to sweat for every second of it. Julian Alvarez’s thunderous long-range strike in the 112th minute finally broke Switzerland’s magnificent resistance, and Lautaro Martinez added a third with virtually the last kick of extra time, as Argentina survived a 3-1 quarterfinal battle in Kansas City on Saturday to book a blockbuster semifinal against England.
The evening began exactly as Argentina would have scripted it. Just ten minutes in, Lionel Messi swung a corner to the near post and Alexis Mac Allister rose to nod it home, sending the heavily Argentine crowd at Arrowhead Stadium into delirium. The early goal seemed to promise a comfortable evening for the defending champions, who controlled possession and tempo for most of the first hour.
Switzerland, however, refused to follow the script. The Swiss grew into the match steadily after halftime, and in the 67th minute Dan Ndoye produced a moment of individual brilliance, curling a finish in from an impossibly narrow angle to level the game at 1-1 and stun a stadium that had been in full party mode.
The match swung again just five minutes later, and this time the drama came from the video assistant referee. Breel Embolo, Switzerland’s talismanic striker, went down looking for a penalty and was instead shown a second yellow card for simulation after the referee reviewed the incident. His dismissal in the 72nd minute left Switzerland to defend their point with ten men for what became more than 50 minutes of football.
What followed was one of the great defensive rearguard performances of the tournament. Switzerland compressed into two disciplined banks, threw bodies in front of every shot, and repeatedly frustrated an Argentina side that poured forward in waves. Regulation ended level, and as extra time wore on, a penalty shootout began to feel inevitable, with the ten men visibly playing for the lottery of spot kicks.
Then came Alvarez. With eight minutes left in extra time, the Atletico Madrid forward collected the ball well outside the area, took one touch to set his feet, and detonated a rising drive that flew past the Swiss goalkeeper before he could fully react. It was a goal worthy of winning any football match, and it broke Swiss hearts that had held firm for 40 minutes of shorthanded defending.
Lautaro Martinez applied the exclamation point in the dying seconds, racing onto a through ball against a Swiss side that had finally abandoned its defensive shape in search of an equalizer. His finish made the scoreline read 3-1, a margin that flattered Argentina but accurately reflected the gulf in attacking talent that eventually told.
One of the night’s stranger subplots involved Messi himself. The 39-year-old captain provided the assist on Mac Allister’s opener but failed to score for the first time in ten World Cup matches, ending a remarkable nine-game scoring streak that stretched back through the 2022 triumph in Qatar. His pursuit of a second consecutive World Cup, in what is almost certainly his final appearance on this stage, remains the tournament’s defining storyline.
The victory sets up a heavyweight semifinal against England on Wednesday, July 15, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The Three Lions punched their ticket with a 2-1 win over Norway behind a Jude Bellingham brace, and the matchup instantly evokes memories of some of the World Cup’s most storied confrontations, from the Hand of God in 1986 to David Beckham’s red card in 1998.
The other semifinal pits France against Spain on Tuesday, July 14, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Remarkably, this is the first World Cup in history in which the top four teams in the FIFA rankings entering the tournament all reached the semifinals, with No. 1 France, No. 2 Argentina, No. 3 Spain, and No. 4 England each surviving the knockout gauntlet.
For Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni, the performance offered both reassurance and warning. The champions have now won five straight knockout matches at the World Cup dating back to 2022, and their big-game experience showed in the composure of the closing stages. But the struggles against ten men, and the reliance on a moment of individual brilliance to break the deadlock, will give England analysts plenty to study before Wednesday.
Kansas City, for its part, delivered one of the atmospheres of the tournament. An announced crowd of more than 73,000, overwhelmingly draped in sky blue and white, turned Arrowhead into a slice of Buenos Aires for the evening. The party now moves to Atlanta, where Argentina will attempt to reach a fifth World Cup final in the Messi era, and England will attempt to end it.
History looms large over Wednesday’s matchup in other ways too. Argentina and England have met multiple times at the World Cup finals since that infamous 1986 quarterfinal, and the fixture remains one of international football’s fiercest rivalries, laden with sporting and political subtext that stretches back generations. Tickets for the Atlanta semifinal were reportedly reselling for several times face value within an hour of the final whistle in Kansas City.
For Switzerland, elimination stings, but the tournament marks a genuine high-water mark for the program. The Swiss matched their best-ever World Cup run, and the image of ten men holding the champions at bay for nearly an hour will endure as one of the defining performances of this World Cup, even in defeat.
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