Messi’s streak ends but Argentina reach the semi-finals to keep their World Cup dream alive
Finish: Argentina 3-1 Switzerland after extra time in the quarter-finals at the Kansas City Stadium. For Argentina: Alexis Mac Allister (10), Julian Alvaraz (112), Lautaro Martinez (120); For Switzerland: Dan Ndoye (67).
Argentina doesn’t know how to make it easy. Three elimination games. Three escapes that will live on in World Cup folklore long after this tournament is over.
Cape Verde almost did it. Egypt had Argentina by two goals before a great escape. This time it was 10-man Switzerland who defended with remarkable determination and pushed the world champions until the 112th minute before Julian Alvarez finally struck the decisive blow.
And Messi? Dangerous but unusually quiet in front of goal.
The Argentina captain’s remarkable World Cup scoring streak ended after nine consecutive games on the scoresheet, the longest such streak in the tournament’s history. Still, even without a goal, Messi still shaped the competition. His accurate corner set up Alexis Mac Allister’s opening goal as he racked up 10 World Cup assists in six editions, the most of any player in the competition’s history. He threatened several times in the second half and extra time but was unable to add to his eight goals at this World Cup.
Argentina 3-1 Switzerland, FIFA World Cup quarter-finals: Highlights
At first it seemed routine. Ten minutes on the clock and Alexis Mac Allister rose above two defenders to meet Messi’s corner and glance into the far corner. The arrowhead exploded. Blue and white smoke, thousands of voices, the whole stadium is jumping. Job done, sure. Argentina would cruise from there.
They didn’t sail. Not even close.
Switzerland had other ideas. Murat Yakin sent his players to push, pass, make life miserable and they had the better of it for long stretches of the first half. Argentina sat, content, perhaps a little careless. Lisandro Martnez turned off on the half-hour and let Embolo run clear, only for Emiliano Martnez to fly off his line to smother the danger before it turned disastrous. Warning. No one took it seriously enough.
In the second half, this game turned into a real battle. Switzerland kept coming, believing and got what they deserved in the 67th minute. Ricardo Rodriguez picked out Dan Ndoye with a delicious through ball and the winger swept home first time. Silence around the champions. Noise from the Swiss side. Suddenly, it was not the parade that anyone expected.
Then madness. Five minutes later, Breel Embolo hit the turf inside the box, missed and looked for a penalty that never existed. VAR was called. The check took ages. Second yellow card. Red. From Embolo he went through the tunnel, and Switzerland were suddenly ten men with the biggest half hour of their footballing lives yet to come.
By normal logic they should have finished it then and there. Not that. This was followed by some of the most heroic defenses of this World Cup. Switzerland threw bodies all over the place. Blocks on the line, last ditches, goalie Kobel standing tall when he needed to. Ten men against the reigning world champions, running on fumes, refusing to fold. Argentina’s Lionel Messi fires a free-kick at goal before hitting a defensive wall (Reuters Photo)
Mac Allister somehow headed wide with the goal gaping. Messi curled one just wide of the post. Normal time ended at 1-1 for both teams and Switzerland somehow weathered the storm.
Overtime started and they still didn’t break. Wave after wave crashed into that Swiss defense and came back empty. It looked like it would go to penalties, and with how heroic Switzerland were, no one would bet against them there.
Then in the 112th minute, magic.
Julian Alvarez picked up the ball just outside the box, moved it to his right foot and unleashed a strike that would be featured on highlight reels for years to come. Twenty-five yards out, dipping, dodging, absolutely unstoppable, into the top corner past a helpless Kobel. Argentina’s bench has emptied. Grown men in tears. This is what a hard-earned ticket to the semi-finals of the World Cup looks like. In the 112th minute, Julian Alvarez scored to give Argentina the lead (Photo Reuters)
Lautaro Martinez piled on more misery in the closing minutes, slotting home the rebound to make it 3-1 and put the game to bed for good. Until then, Switzerland had nothing to give. Ten men, extra time, the champion’s side throwing everything at them. No one could ask for more from Yakin’s group. They just ran into a team that refuses to lose. Now comes the match the entire tournament has been building towards.
ARGENTINA VS ENGLAND. ATLANTA. WEDNESDAY.
Now it’s England v Argentina, progress to the FIFA World Cup finals on the line.
Forty years have passed since the hand of God. Forty years since Diego Maradona danced through half of England’s team at the Azteca and broke a nation’s hearts twice in the same afternoon, first with hideous deception and then with extraordinary brilliance. The shadow of the Falklands still lingers over every meeting between the two nations, a rivalry shaped by much more than football.
Now Lionel Messi gets the chance to write his own chapter in a game that defined Argentine football folklore for a generation. In what is expected to be the last World Cup, he will face the only opponent who carries a history like no other.
Argentina arrived unbeaten in their last 12 World Cup matches. They are one win away from another final and a step away from becoming the first team since Brazil in 1962 to successfully defend the World Cup.
Nothing about this Argentina side is comfortable to watch. Nothing comes easy. However, if there’s one quality they’ve shown throughout this tournament, it’s an uncanny ability to survive. Time and time again, when the pressure mounted and the chances dwindled, they found a way.
Atlanta is set for a night that could make history.
Football World Cup | FIFA World Cup Schedule | FIFA World Cup Points Table | football news
– The end
Issued by:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
12 Jul 2026 09:49 IST