Lionel Messi was the star of the show as Argentina beat England in the World Cup 2026 semi-final, setting up both of his side's goals
Lionel Messi reckons Argentina's critics have been silenced after his side beat England 2-1 in the second World Cup semi-final on Wednesday night.
Argentina came from a goal behind after Anthony Gordon opened the scoring for the Three Lions ten minutes after half-time, with Messi setting up the equaliser and inner. The Inter Miami ace set up Enzo Fernandez for a strike from distance with just five minutes left.
He then crossed in for Lautaro Martinez to head home in the second minute of injury time . Argentina needed extra time to win two of their four knockout games and were run close by Cabo Verde, Switzerland and England. Messi and Co. have come in for criticism this summer but the Barcelona legend reckons his doubters have been silenced.
Following the fixture, Messi declared : "It was a special match against England, we couldn't lose. While this group doesn't owe anything to anyone, you know how Argentinians are, we always demand more.
"I think if we had lost today, people would have come out and said some nonsense, and we didn't give them the chance. We knew that we were better than them in terms of football. "But a lot is at stake in a match of this magnitude, where historic events happen in these games, but it's still special because of everything it represents, and we had to win."
When Messi takes to the pitch against Spain, he will become just the second player after Brazilian legend Cafu to feature in three World Cup finals. Triumph over the Euro 2024 champions would also see the 39-year-old become the first skipper to successfully defend the World Cup.
He also climbed to the summit of the World Cup golden boot standings, with his two goal contributions lifting his total to eight strikes and four assists. Messi added: "Everything we experienced was incredible, from the very beginning, as we said.
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"Although it was a football match, when we started to enter the field and during the anthem, we experienced special feelings, and the group felt that. It wasn't just another victory; it was an important victory that the Argentine people wanted, and we wanted it too, and it put us in another World Cup final.
"It's crazy to play two World Cup finals in a row. This group is incredible. Today we went looking for it again when things got tough, we never stopped believing, never stopped trying.
"With our style of play, today we really put our game into it when we were down on the scoreboard. We pinned them back in their own half and it's an enormous joy."
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