Didier Deschamps will bow out as France manager in defeat, emphatically denied a third successive World Cup final by Spain. It is the European champions who will face England or Argentina in New Jersey on Sunday after one of the most extraordinary no-shows.
France, almost universally accepted as the favourites, went missing when it mattered, falling behind for the first time at this tournament inside 22 minutes and never recovering.
Just as they did 16 years ago, Spain will have the chance to hold both major international titles simultaneously. Luis de la Fuente’s plan worked perfectly, the full-backs playing a starring role on the road to the final. For the best defence of the summer, it was another clean sheet.
Yet the greater surprise is that France crashed out with such meekness that it became hard to remember why they were thought indomitable just days ago. Having brushed aside the likes of Norway, Morocco and Sweden, Kylian Mbappe had no service, drifting left and right in search of the ball.
His teammates began to crumble the moment Lucas Digne brought down Lamine Yamal inside the box, the penalty converted expertly by Mikel Oyarzabal. The VAR found little in handball claims against Yamal, who turned 19 this week.
From there, and without Arsenal’s William Saliba who withdrew through injury, the defending did not improve – in fact, in spells France did not even attempt it, the same ponderous attitude that raised its head in the group stages. As Dayot Upamecano floundered, Pedro Porro seized on the space to finish with the side of his foot past Mike Maignan for just his second international goal.
Any prospect of a French fightback did not materialise, Desire Doue squandering the opportunity when Unai Simon came soaring off his line. Rodri continued to set the tempo and Marc Cucurella excelled on the left in Spain’s most accomplished display yet.
France were champions in Russia in 2018 and runners-up in Qatar four years ago, when they were beaten by Argentina. If England do reach the final, it will be Spain – who beat them in the showpiece at Euro 2024 – who lie in wait.
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It’s not often you head to Fratton Park with anything other than a sense of impending doom.
Particularly in the Carabao Cup – a tournament that Portsmouth have reached the third round of just once since 2009-10. A sunny, warm August evening in 2019 was different.
Not because expectations were any higher than usual, but because Pompey were taking on Birmingham and a potential teenage superstar was in line to make his debut for the visitors.
A friend of mine had a son at the Birmingham academy and had messaged me the weekend to tell me to keep an eye out for a kid that had long been identified as rare and special at St Andrew’s.
A player who had played for the club’s under-18 side at the age of just 14. A youngster who had clubs across Europe tracking his every move.
That evening on the south coast, the then 16-year-old became the youngest player to be handed a senior debut by Birmingham since Trevor Francis.
Bellingham has dragged England to the World Cup semi-finals (Photo: Getty)
Bellingham was 101 days younger than Francis, who had set the previous record in 1970.
A decent number of Birmingham fans had headed south, with a sighting of Bellingham the primary motivation. Just over a decade before, Portsmouth had played host to Ronaldinho in a Europa League tie with AC Milan.
That night was so loud, so raucous and so utterly unreal, that at times it felt the stands at the famous old ground would collapse in excitement, particularly after Pompey sprinted into a 2-0 lead.
The official attendance was 20,403 – the decibel levels were worthy of the Azteca last weekend.
Bellingham would have loved it. This August evening was a more modest occasion in every sense. A decent crowd of 9,913 were there to witness the first appearance of a player who looks set to be the defining player of his generation.
On Wednesday night, he’ll be the shirt that every Argentina player will want to add to their personal collection. Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martinez or Enzo Fernandez will be circling.
Bellingham was never going to stick around
It’s unlikely any shirt swapping when on that night at Fratton, but if it had, Bellingham could have exchanged his with the likes of Ellis Harrison – who scored twice on his home debut – or Ben Close (last seen on loan at Eastleigh).
On the pitch, just as he has shouldered England’s World Cup hopes in North America this summer, Bellingham wouldn’t have taken too long to realise that his bedding in process at Birmingham wasn’t going to be a gradual one.
A teenage Bellingham was already destined for greatness (Photo: Getty)
Picked as one of nine changes to Pep Clotet’s side after a promising 1-0 win away at Brentford on the opening day of the Championship season, Bellingham was soon taking on the responsibility of dragging Birmingham back into the game after Pompey went 2-0 up in the first 40 minutes.
It wasn’t an overly auspicious bow by the teenage wonderkid, but you could already tell that his stay at Birmingham would be brief. It wasn’t so much the extra time he had on the ball every time he received it, as much as the way he drove his side forward.
He may have been 16, playing away night for the Championship side against hardened League One opponents but he spent the majority of his 80 minutes on the pitch cajoling and encouraging his teammates.
An ego? Almost certainly. But this was a young footballer who couldn’t have been less intimidated by either his opponents or the opportunity he had been handed at such a tender age.
In 2023, a scouting report from a Premier League club was leaked to TheDaily Mail and described Bellingham’s immediate impact in a game that ended in a 3-0 defeat.
“Only 16 but awe-inspiring,” it read. That pretty much summed it up.
As we filed out of Fratton Park, I had the sense that we too had witnessed something extraordinary from a player who would find himself at Borussia Dortmund within ten months.
Few songs beyond Play up Pompey get much of an airing at this South Coast cathedral.
Had we known then what we know now, we would have gladly belted out Hey Jude in his honour.
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NEW YORK – Mask-clad, marauding down the left, Djed Spence was an unlikely hero to emerge from England’s World Cup summer.
Rarely has there been so late a scramble for plane tickets as when Thomas Tuchel announced his 26-man squad in May, Spence’s family quickly following him to the United States. Jordan Henderson aside, his was the least predictable name on the list.
In the absence of sufficient forward-thinking down the middle and the lack of the edge in the wide areas, debates over Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Adam Wharton will rage on. After the briefest of glitches in the set-to with DR Congo, it is telling that nobody is any longer hankering for Myles Lewis-Skelly or Lewis Hall. On the other side, there is little Spence could do that would ever wholly justify Trent Alexander-Arnold’s surprise exclusion.
Tuchel’s thinking, so impenetrable to a nation learning to trust him, was this. In the very early days at youth level in Peckham, south London, Spence started life as a winger. A right-back by trade, he has been forced onto the opposite flank more often than not at Spurs this season, through an injury crisis that wiped out Ben Davies, Destiny Udogie and an unfamiliar left-back in Souza, who played just four times.
Spence and Jude Bellingham after England’s epic win in Mexico (Photo: Getty)
The fluidity of the Tottenham Hotspur full-back is such that it makes him the ideal candidate for Norway, a quarter-final by the end of which you would be hard-pushed to explain who was playing where.
In the summer of 2025, before Thomas Frank’s project quickly disintegrated, Spence was even used in a front three. That flexibility is a double-edged sword, the typical criticism being that he is too right-footed to play on the left. Against Mexico it allowed him to slot into a back five when it was backs-to-the-wall time.
Certainly there is an argument that if Spence has been a late developer, he has been as much a victim of circumstance as anything else.
Released by Fulham just shy of his 18th birthday, an alternative path might have kept him at Middlesbrough for another year, had the relationship with Neil Warnock not broken down.
He was sent on loan to Nottingham Forest, almost immediately finding himself under another change of manager. On the bridge over the Trent outside the City Ground, a graffiti tag still reads: “Djed Spence, we miss you.” That should give a feeling of where Steve Cooper took him to.
Spence is the first Muslim to play for England at a World Cup (Photo: Getty)
In Antonio Conte he found no such an ally. Days after joining Tottenham, his manager used a press conference to dismiss him as a “club signing” rather than a player he wanted – by reply Spence said the revelation “shattered his confidence”. Conte awarded him a total of 43 minutes. Over his next full season at Spurs after loans at Rennes, Leeds and Genoa, he played an hour of football between August and mid-December 2024. He studied French and Italian but never fully settled.
In Yorkshire it was a knee ligament injury that sent him packing after seven appearances, in Italy the Serie A side’s refusal to stump up £8m to make the deal permanent. Daniel Farke would complain of his lateness to Leeds’ training sessions. It meant little prospect of a north London renaissance, where it would take him two-and-a-half years to start a game. Four years on, he has played under five Spurs managers.
Under Roberto De Zerbi he is still not guaranteed to start, with Udogie and Pedro Porro ahead of him on the left and right respectively. Andy Robertson has arrived too, while Micky van de Ven can yet play at full-back. The make-up of the squad is closer now to Spence’s age bracket and he has forged friendships – still his future is uncertain with Everton waiting in the wings.
The other contradiction lies in Tuchel himself, so often berating him from the sidelines in both the warm-ups and the group stages. Tuchel’s England reign will stand or fall on divisive decisions like Spence’s ticket to the US – so far they have been proven right. England are in the semi-finals for just the fourth time ever.
For now, the defender retains the role of cult figure, strapping holding together a broken jaw, unfortunate not to win a penalty against Norway. The refusal to shake hands with Thomas Partey against Ghana. He is the first Muslim to play for England at a World Cup and raises his hands in Du’a on the pitch – those close to him say his faith is central to his career.
England are being dragged towards history by the most obvious heroes in Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane. None have come from the peripheries quite like Spence to become quite so important.
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ATLANTA — Somewhere in the next life Antonio Ubaldo Rattin is throwing heavenly darts at England squad photos and tearing up pictures of the Union Jack.
The former Boca Juniors and national team captain, who died earlier this month aged 89, had come to symbolise in more innocent times the anti-English sentiment in Argentina.
The animus he felt was entirely football-related and rooted in the perceived bias against Argentina at the 1966 World Cup held in England. Sixty years on, his actions appear no less petulant than they did when he stubbornly refused to accept his sending off for dissent, initially declining to leave the pitch and then plonking himself on the red carpet in front of the Royal Box.
That moment defined his life, Rattin returning to it whenever the opportunity arose in interviews with English journalists. He had already been booked before ploughing into the back of Geoff Hurst.
Though this did not trigger his immediate exit, German referee Rudy Kreitlein acted following the resultant free-kick, offended by what he later described as Rattin’s repeated outbursts, which he interpreted as dissent despite having no Spanish. England won 1-0 en route to their only World Cup success.
Maradona’s infamous ‘Hand of God’ (Photo: Getty)
Argentina were not alone in their negative interpretation of the officiating and overall running of the competition, seeing anti-Latin feeling on the pitch and under hotel beds.
This attitude would later acquire the political dimension that persists today when the leader of Argentina’s military government, General Leopoldo Galtieri invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982, a desperate punt to legitimise his deeply unpopular regime via a unifying policy.
The junta came to power 10 years after Rattin’s storied World Cup quarter-final meltdown against England and was gone a year after the failed invasion. Rattin would later enter politics himself spending four years in government as a member of the Federalist Unity Party.
As Chairman of the Sports Committee his focus was elsewhere but by then the Falklands, or Las Malvinas, were established as a sacred political cause in Argentina, not that he needed any convincing of English hauteur.
Later, Argentina would gain their sporting revenge on Rattin’s behalf in 1986 via Diego Maradona’s notorious “Hand of God”.
Beckham’s rivalry further stoked tensions (Photo: Getty)
In material terms Maradona cheated Argentina into a lead they never looked like surrendering. His quasi-religious framing trumped all controversy, and was received by the Argentinian people as an inalienable truth and justification for historic wrongs on the pitch and in the political arena.
Argentina’s anti-English position can thus be seen as a cultural staple built on the Rattin, Falklands and Maradona episodes, foundational pillars that are unlikely to shift whilst an archipelago 300 miles off the coast of Argentina remains under British sovereignty.
We can argue the toss about the validity of sovereign rule more than three centuries after a British sea captain first set foot on an uninhabited rock in the South Atlantic. Argentina claim they inherited the islands from colonialist power Spain after independence in 1818. Default ownership resulting from a prior colonial land grab hardly lands with moral force. But hey, that does not alter the way Argentina view the English, which manifests itself most readily when the countries meet on the sporting field.
David Beckham was a victim of the Argentinian dark arts when sent off for a theatrical flick of his heal whilst prone on the floor following yet another cynical challenge by Diego Simeone at the 1998 World Cup. England would lose on penalties and Beckham, the English totem of the day, would return home to effigies hanging from lamposts, an added bonus for the delectation of Argentina.
Beckham would gain revenge of sorts, slotting the penalty in a 1-0 victory four years later that saw England progress to the knockout stages before falling to Brazil in the quarters.
The teams have not met since. Lionel Messi has never played a fixture against England. The semi-final here in Atlanta hardly needs extra sauce yet the Messi detail brings it, adding to the narrative power of an already seismic duel.
England touch down on Tuesday following a final morning training session at their Kansas base. By then downtown Atlanta will be flooded by supporters of both teams, some of whom will be seated side by side in the stands. Let us hope calm heads prevail, despite the celestial stirrings of a late departed hero.
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Newcastle United are aiming to sign at least four more first-team players in the summer transfer window, with insiders admitting that the club are facing “headwinds” in a close season of transition.
The i Paper understands that Newcastle see the three players they have added as roughly “par” for where they expected to be at this point.
But there is an acceptance that the narrative surrounding the Magpies is difficult after they apparently missed out on another top target in Freiburg midfielder Johan Manzambi.
Latest on Johan Manzambi
Aston Villa are now set to beat the Magpies to Freiburg’s Johan Manzambi (Photo: Getty)
In an illustration of how complex the transfer window can be, Manzambi’s representatives were still insisting to senior club figures late on Monday morning that they had not made a decision on his future.
However it is widely anticipated that the Switzerland international, one of the breakout stars of the World Cup, will now join Aston Villa for £49m – something Newcastle began to fear might be the case before the weekend.
Newcastle had made a serious pitch to Manzambi but club sources suggest it was never viewed internally as a “done deal” – unlike winger Victor Munoz, who they believe they had persuaded to come to St James’ Park before Liverpool hijacked the move.
While it might feel like a case of deja vu after being turned down by a slew of top targets last summer, the difference this year is they are working on “multiple, concurrent deals” and a much larger pool of potential targets that has been sourced since January.
They are in advanced talks with targets of similar profile and potential – who are also capable of exciting supporters – and anticipate having “three or four” more new signings on board before the season starts.
“We knew there would be points this summer where it would be frustrating, where things might feel difficult,” one senior source said. “But there’s a bigger plan we are working to – and have to work to.”
Two stumbling blocks
The lack of European football is seriously hindering their efforts this summer (Photo: Getty)
Having sold Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali already this summer, the mood around the club feels pretty desperate.
But progress on one of their big ticket items – infrastructure projects which majority owners Saudi Arabi’s Public Investment Fund have been criticised for not moving faster on – is understood to be close.
Those in charge point out that they have little option but to recalibrate recruitment, contemplate sales and absorb some blows given the hand they have been dealt this summer.
Clearly two things are harming their efforts.
The first is their ongoing battle with financial rules, which saw chief executive David Hopkinson summoned to Nyon for a Uefa tribunal earlier this summer and which means they must be disciplined in the transfer market in terms of fees and wages.
The second – and this has been critical in missing out on Munoz and Manzambi – is their lack of European football.
Finishing 12th last season has robbed them of that selling point and also impacted revenues, a sizeable blow given that clubs Newcastle are competing with can offer both.
So while the club are continuing to look at ambitious targets, there are no guarantees they will be able to get every deal they want over the line.
They have managed to fend off competition to sign midfielder Sean Steur, winger Bazoumana Toure and goalkeeper Ewen Jaouen.
A new blueprint
Newcastle are also known admirers of Wolves’ Joao Gomes (Photo: Getty)
But first-team additions are being worked on, with a midfielder capable of progressing the ball quickly now a priority.
Newcastle are understood to be big fans of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Joao Gomes and Brazil international Danilo, who plays for Botafogo, is well-known to sporting director Ross Wilson after his stint at Nottingham Forest.
There are also targets based in Germany and Italy who they, understandably, are desperate to keep under wraps.
The club are aware of the perception of their summer efforts but it is emphasised that this is a transition period as they have to move away from the position they were in post-takeover of acquiring top internationals on big fees.
The new blueprint is a “multi-year, sustainable” plan that Newcastle believe will leave them in a far greater position by the start of the summer.
“Judge us at close of play on 1 September” is the message of those attempting to construct Newcastle version 2.0.
And it is probably wise counsel, however uncomfortable it might feel in mid-July.
The elephant in the room
If Newcastle broker a few more of the deals they are working on fans might buy that, but Bruno Guimaraes remains the elephant in the room.
If he becomes the third big name to leave in one summer it will be a very difficult sell, and there are few guarantees on his future as it stands.
As yet Newcastle have not had any contact at all from Arsenal and insiders have dismissed much of the speculation as noise driven by his representatives.
But if Arsenal do get close to their valuation of nearly £100m there is a decision to make – and massive repercussions to manage.
In an ideal world he would stay another year and Steur, viewed as potentially the player to pick up his mantle in the medium to long-term, would become his successor.
As Newcastle have already discovered in this close season, things are never that simple.
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All of Tuchel’s more curious selections came with an asterisk. Win the whole thing and few pages in the history books would be dedicated to Phil Foden, Cole Palmer or Trent Alexander-Arnold’s exclusions. A 26-man squad selected via 3D chess, which would eventually come into its own in the later stages.
The hour has arrived for those calls to pay off. It is why Tuchel’s initial 18-month contract was extended before the World Cup began – he is the ultimate big-occasion coach and they do not come much bigger than Argentina in Atlanta.
After the sheer exertion and exhaustion of Norway, England still do not have a full complement to choose from – here is how they could line up.
Pickford
Jordan Pickford has made more saves than any goalkeeper left in the World Cup. That is partly because he’s needed to but he has had a remarkable turnaround after a sub-par group stage.
James
Before the tournament began, it looked as if Reece James would be ruled out for the duration. His return is timely given the dearth of options at right-back, with Tino Livramento injured and Jarell Quansah suspended.
That made his deployment in midfield against Norway all the more baffling, while Kobbie Mainoo took in the action from the bench. Starting James is an obvious risk given his fitness issues and the question is whether Tuchel believes he is capable of managing at least an hour before he turns to his “finishers” – but now is the time to go big or go home.
Stones
Ezri Konsa was suffering from hamstring cramps by the end of the quarter-final. He started the game at right-back but it also means one less option for England in the middle. It was John Stones who most effectively kept Erling Haaland at bay. For all the criticism of Alexander Sorloth for not squaring it to Haaland to make it 2-0 to Norway, Stones did just enough to put him off. He has to start, with Dan Burn in reserve.
England have reached the semi-finals for just the fourth time in history (Photo: Getty)
Guehi
Denied Antonio Nusa with a superb block against Norway and another sure starter.
Spence
Djed Spence’s performances at this World Cup have typified the season he had with Tottenham – excelling particular when asked to fill in on the left away from his natural position at right-back. There were times when he was almost playing as part of the front three in the quarter-final and it very nearly came off with his penalty appeal.
Nico O’Reilly has done little really wrong at this World Cup and both he and Spence carry an element of risk against an attack as good as Argentina’s, but Spence is the more direct threat if England want to properly exploit the channels.
Rice
Rice has four days to recover from the illness that saw him isolated from the group for much of the week leading up to Norway and subsequently taken off at half-time. He has been tidy enough at this World Cup albeit not spectacular – that is as much a by-product of Tuchel’s approach to the midfield as anything else.
If he cannot manage the full 90, Mainoo simply has to get on to try and thread through the types of balls Rice and Anderson have been reluctant to attempt.
Anderson will be tasked with one job but it is unenviable one – stopping Lionel Messi. He started this tournament at Nottingham Forest and ends it as the most expensive British footballer of all time – he has largely shown why, dominating the midfield. His best creative work came against Mexico and even if not a priority, he will be key if England are to break the lines in between containing Argentina.
Saka
Noni Madueke did not create any chances against Norway and in the same vein as James, it’s time to gamble on Saka even if he is not 100 per cent. Even where he can’t use his pace he is still capable of drifting balls into the box for Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham. There is one other solution at hand – and that’s deploying Morgan Rogers on the right alongside Bellingham. Tuchel hinted at it before the tournament but has only done so sparingly.
Bellingham
It is going to sound absurd whichever way you phrase it but Bellingham is England’s answer to Messi, in that he is the one player around whom Argentina will stand or fall in this semi-final.
It sounds equally absurd to have any doubts over Bellingham, but footage from Spain appears to show him clutching at his shoulder more than once against Norway – given his history of shoulder injuries, that has to be a worry.
Bellingham is dragging England towards history (Photo: Getty)
Gordon
Much like Pickford, Gordon has had a spectacular turnaround when it matters. It felt unfortunate that his big-money move to Barcelona coincided with their decision not to pursue Marcus Rashford on a permanent basis in that it set up an immediate point of comparison within the squad. Gordon has three assists since then and has more than justified his starting place.
Kane
The one fear over Kane at this World Cup was whether, given the lack of high-quality alternatives, he would be able to complete every game.
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In the least surprising news of all time, there is probably going to be more football. The game’s determination to eat itself in the name of big revenue, not to mention pushing the physical wellbeing of players like some mad Buckaroo experiment, is unmatched. Gianni Infantino, Fifa’s president, has conceded that he is examining an expansion to 64 teams for the next World Cup.
Is it worth even feigning shock for effect? The 48-team World Cup was only ever a placeholder, another step along the road to a World Cup every day in every country just so long as the revenue generation curve never dips. Football has no new ideas, just the same ones bigger. I dunno, call them all Super Bowls or something? It’s the post-truth age anyway. Nobody cares if it makes sense.
We should point out that this is not a done deal yet. In his interview with a Swiss media outlet, Infantino insisted that the issue will be “examined and debated within the relevant committees”. To which I’d say that… sorry I can’t. If I speak I am in big trouble.
The most galling thing: this works as a concept. That is how they get you. You thought a 48-team tournament was flawed? You didn’t like the eight third-place finishers and countries hanging on during an unfair process? Yeah nor us, rubbish isn’t it. But we can’t go back to 32 teams now so we’ll just have to go bigger. What else is a poor governing body to do?
Make no mistake: this is a double power-grab. For Fifa, it is the perfect PR move to pull rank over the continental confederations. What a World Cup expansion – doubling the participants from 32 to 64 in eight years – does most is to reduce the intrigue of qualifying and reduces the chances of major nations missing out. It means that more than 30 per cent of all Fifa nations will be at the party.
Which, if you’re running the show and generating the cash, makes complete sense. You don’t want Nigeria, Italy, Cameroon and Denmark missing out and you don’t want the psychodrama of those nations playing out months before your tournament begins. Who knows, you might even sneak in a China, Indonesia or India and then that revenue is really cooking.
On the Road USA
Join Daniel Storey on his 7,500-mile odyssey across the US to tell the stories of a World Cup like no other.
This is also a power play from Infantino himself, who has had a difficult tournament. Sure, he’s probably had a lovely time flying to every other match and appearing on the big screen to do a wave like he’s on a Bond villain special of Blankety Blank.
But there have been… difficulties. Like the accusation that his close relationship with Donald Trump that included a political recommendation before the tournament might have led to levers being pulled over the Folarin Balogun suspension overturn.
Now Infantino, we must say, denied that Trump’s calls had anything to do with that decision. But the whole affair did provoke Uefa to release a damning statement about Fifa’s regime and, according to The Times, has caused a loss of support for the president within his own organisation. Infantino is going to get re-elected, but some of his other ideas may have been kicked into the longer grass.
Infantino’s core support lies within South America and Africa. So what better way to firm up those relationships than by expanding a tournament that may, coincidentally, significantly increase the number of African qualifiers and give three South American countries (currently down to host three matches between them) an entire group’s matches each. Welcome to the Fifa bakery: bigger pie, more slices.
How should we feel about this – angry, sad, vengeful, resigned? The other way they win is through outrage fatigue. We are pawns in their game, helpless flotsam caught in a torrent of geopolitical posturing and sport’s powerbroking.
Sixty-four teams? Sure. A World Cup every two years? Probably. The 64th spot kept open and 26 autocratic leaders and techno-manbabies each getting to pick a player? Don’t give them ideas.
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England might not have exactly swaggered into the World Cup semi-finals but they most definitely can win it.
If anything, the fact that they still have a couple of gears to move through after beating DR Congo, Mexico and Norway should be ominous for the three other teams left standing.
After a suffocating quarter-final win – both on account of the conditions and the tension that accompanied much of their second-half display – England now meet the best team they have played in two years.
But there is nothing to fear from Argentina and clear signs that this is a team that can end that long wait for silverware.
Jude Bellingham
Jude Bellingham is playing like a man possessed in this tournament (Photo: Getty)
Do not underestimate the impact that one man can have on a World Cup.
Tournaments are often won in moments and England have the ultimate moments man in Jude Bellingham, who is playing the best football of his international career.
Is he the best attacking midfielder we have had since Bobby Charlton? If England prevail on Wednesday, you can certainly construct that argument.
His performances this summer have eclipsed Paul Gascoigne’s breakout tournament in 1990 – not just for impact but also for the maturity of a man whose mentality was questioned in the autumn.
Where are those critics now? The shout that he should be left at home always stretched credibility gossamer thin but in the light of what has happened in the US over the past month it looks like an all-timer.
He is driving England on, scoring goals but also controlling the mood in games and in the camp. “When Jude is on form it sends a message,” Dan Burn said a fortnight ago. And the message has been: England can win it.
Thomas Tuchel’s tactics
“Tournament Thomas” is what they call the phenomenon, when the glint returns to his eye and the juices really start flowing for a manager whose CV suggests he makes the right calls when the pressure is on.
Camp insiders have marvelled at the change in him as the World Cup began. And the lore of Thomas Tuchel being a great knockout manager has only increased with each substitution paying off.
The defensive reinforcements in the Azteca were a masterstroke that few others would have tried – Djed Spence and Morgan Rogers proved game-changers on Saturday.
If Mexico was his masterpiece, Norway felt more like a difficult second album. But his extraordinary interview with ITV after the game illustrated the true nature of the man: relentless, unhappy and not afraid to prick a few egos in the search for more.
If anyone can come up with a gameplan to get England past Argentina, Tuchel can.
There is at least another gear to go through
Thomas Tuchel was not happy with England’s performance against Norway (Photo: Getty)
Roy Keane scoffed that “maybe there is no more to come from England” after Tuchel called for more.
But that is a misguided diagnosis of a team who have shown in fits and starts what they can do.
Against Croatia for 45 minutes – opponents who wanted to come forward and have a go – England purred and so did Tuchel, calling it exactly what he wants to see from his side.
Since then? DR Congo came to frustrate and nearly pulled it off. Mexico were frazzled because of the 10 men. Norway had their gameplan, but it was not to attack.
Argentina won’t be the same. They will fancy their chances of getting at England and leave space that Egypt, Cape Verde and Switzerland all exploited. Playing better teams will suit this iteration of England much more.
They have been so close before
England are no strangers to the latter stages of tournaments but there is something very different about this run.
In 2018 it was wide-eyed wonderment that we were in the deep end of the World Cup. “Three Lions” was going viral but we were just glad to be there.
This time? Not so much. The tournament is now a success for England and Tuchel but they are ranked fourth in the world.
They should be here and this is the third tournament of the last four that they have reached this stage.
That means they have experience but also hunger. The group know what it feels like to be in these big games but also what goes wrong in these kind of matches and that experience should liberate them.
The job they did on Erling Haaland
Norway was not pretty but what was encouraging was how quiet Haaland – who had scored in every international since September 2024 – was kept.
England, barring a hair-brained period in the first half, did a great job on the best striker in the world and it should encourage them that they could do something similar on Lionel Messi, the enduring star of this Argentina team.
For a minute Tuchel looked like he was going to tear a strip off Gabriel Clarke, the poor ITV interviewer who asked if England’s mentality had been the problem in the stodgy win over Norway.
It was not a problem of mentality, he was told. And Tuchel was right: the desire, fight and mentality of this England side is flawless – they have come through things that would have killed previous generations.
The win over Mexico was impressive but there was something about prevailing against Norway – in the heat, with key players not at 100 per cent and Norway sensing momentum was with them – that suggests this England team are different.
Whatever happens this week, it will not be a failure of bottle. They are a group of mentality monsters.
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MIAMI — Thomas Tuchel always felt himself a little bit English. Well, he is one of us now, anglicised by the match trying to fathom how the players he sees at our clubs become mysteriously something other in an England shirt.
Tuchel, the great German technician brought to the post to make us less English in the later stages of major tournaments, ends up just as grateful as his predecessors for the indomitable spirit that binds us.
Tuchel will be loved forever for the honesty and candour of his post-match rant bemoaning the lack of quality and method that left his team so close to disaster against Norway.
But that will not save him should his own mistakes continue to work against the good in his team. The problem he faces in Atlanta is not so much working out how to blunt Lionel Messi and Argentina but how to unlock his own side and maintain his alliance with Jude Bellingham.
Like us, Tuchel is thankful for the talismanic, super human, a player who simply refuses to shrink before the responsibility of leading this team. But there is clearly a tension from less happier days when Tuchel questioned his attitude and singular approach.
“Sometimes it’s not technical or tactical,” Bellingham said, “It’s psychological, how you manage setbacks, how you manage adversity. You’re not going to win every game popping the ball and making a thousand passes. Sometimes you have to win dirty.”
Putting James in midfield was an insult to Mainoo (Photo: Getty)
This was essentially Bellingham’s retort to Tuchel’s frustration and anger. We were lucky, argued Tuchel. He was right. Tuchel also said he loved his team, but that context was lost in the immediacy of post-match processing.
“Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those conditions against Erling Haaland, [Martin] Odegard, [Antonio] Nusa and [Alexander] Sorloth. That’s not an easy team to play against,” Bellingham said.
Maybe Norway was the contest that laid tensions bare, that stripped camp England of all pretension. The blade of truth is out, cutting through the rhetoric. The requirement now is an honest appraisal of how we progressed to a fifth World Cup semi-final without remotely hitting a peak.
And part of that is to address his own contribution to the diminution of rhythm and pattern on the pitch. He might start with midfield. The part of the pitch served with distinction by Bellingham malfunctions around him partly because of Tuchel’s bizarre reluctance to play Kobbie Mainoo and the unavailability of Jordan Henderson, whose selection always looked a punt too far.
With England falling into disarray sans Declan Rice, it was almost an insult to Mainoo to deploy Reece James at the base of the scrum instead of him. And to have Henderson bouncing around in full kit with a pot on his arm was cultish nonsense.
Reheating Tuchel’s selection foibles will not bring Cole Palmer, Phil Foden or Jarrod Bowen back for Wednesday. If there is a lack of quality in his squad it is of Tuchel’s own making. Having chosen Mainoo his continued exclusion feels unreasonable.
Tuchel’s frustration is our frustration. How to get 11 players to be the sum of their parts, to impact matches like they do for their clubs. Norway stood off in the first half but England didn’t pick up on the deference shown them and were too risk-averse. Tuchel demands dynamism and gets diffidence.
Argentina are essentially peopled by players from the Premier League’s top six plus Messi. There ought to be no surprises and, to quote Franklin D. Roosevelt, little to fear accept fear itself.
The post-match mantra is always the same. We have to improve, we can get better. And before the next the optimism is back. He wants front foot aggression, to attack with skill and confidence. Be the best England we can be.
The tournament is in his hands as much as the players’. To live the dream in Atlanta and beyond England need a better game from their manager too.
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Even the wording is eerily similar. Like back in 1983, Gabriel Clarke probably expected Thomas Tuchel to eulogise about what his England players had just achieved in reaching the World Cup semi-final from the outset.
Just as an irate Sir Alex Ferguson did, after guiding Aberdeen to cup success over Rangers 43 years ago, Tuchel instead laid down the gauntlet to his jubilant charges – he wants and expects more.
Ferguson labelled that Aberdeen showing a disgrace. While Tuchel did not go quite as far, the thinking behind engaging in such psychological warfare is the same. It is what elite managers do.
Ilkay Gundogan explained how Pep Guardiola was always harsher on his players when they won. One particular example he cited upon the Catalan’s Manchester City farewell was when, in 2022, City had just become the first team in Champions League history to lead an away knockout tie by at least four goals at half-time against Sporting Lisbon, Guardiola came into the dressing room fuming.
Certain passes weren’t right as he berated his players – if they played like that in the next round, they were out.
"Not happy with the performance…"
Thomas Tuchel calls for more from his players after England's 2-1 win over Norway…
Tuchel has created an environment with England where such tough love works.
Earlier in the tournament, the German’s trusty lieutenant Anthony Barry became the star of the show for his forthright views on England’s first-half performance against Croatia.
And not just among the expectant masses back home – the players were totally on board.
“You need it,” Nico O’Reilly said. “I mean, if you’re not doing something right, or you’re not doing so well, someone there to tell you, I think it’s the right thing to do.”
Jude Bellingham’s immediate response was to bite back. But that would have been welcomed by Tuchel and his staff too. Tuchel has picked a squad in his mould, to much criticism. How could he leave players of the talent of Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Trent Alexander-Arnold at home and take Jordan Henderson and Djed Spence instead?
Nothing is without reason with the meticulous England obsessive. The squad was picked to cope with this kind of challenge. It may seem trivial to some, but vibes within the group really are just as important as the ability of any player.
Gareth Southgate did a lot of good in the England setup. St George’s Park looks like it does and offers the path to stardom it can as a result of measures he and Dan Ashworth put in place.
Southgate’s managerial persona was more akin to a diplomat than a Tuchel-type disruptor. While his record of two major finals trumps anything since Sir Alf Ramsey, in the heat of the moment, 2018 against Croatia and the Euro 2020 final immediately spring to mind, when England lacked that killer instinct to reach the promised land again.
Tuchel has learned the hard way, after dealing with Paris Saint-Germain’s “bling-bling” era, that being an elite manager, you need to do things your way, no matter what the naysayers say.
Take his in-game substitutions. Every decision is preordained, right back to his squad selection and picking players for particular moments, not for their overall ability. Dan Burn has had a greater effect on results than many starters, for example. How many others would have even brought the Newcastle United defender along?
Knockout football is a results business, not an aesthetically pleasing performance one. And this is when Tuchel comes alive. His record in knockout football speaks for itself, but it is no fluke.
This is what elite managers do. There is no resting on laurels. Every decision has a consequence. And it is why England perhaps have their greatest chance of ending 60 years hurt more than ever before.
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Jude Bellingham is now second for non-penalty major tournament goals in the history of the England national team. No England player has ever scored more goals than him at a single World Cup or European Championship. Bellingham is also the second-youngest appearance maker for England at this World Cup. Read that last one again. This does not make sense.
Every major tournament goal is momentous, but even so: Bellingham scored England’s first goal in Qatar and their first in Germany. He has scored 90th-minute equalisers, opening goals and game changers. He has scored twice in two minutes. He has carried an entire team on his back during this tournament. Harry Kane has the same number of goals, but for impact there is no fair fight.
Herein lies the great irony. They accused Bellingham of being arrogant. They said that his demand to be the protagonist, his main character energy, was in danger of dragging England down. Now that is exactly what they must celebrate him for being and doing. Bellingham has been named Man of the Match in four of England’s six games. He is the literal main character.
He gets frustrated because he wants to win? Fine by me – I want that too. He throws up his arms in frustration when things aren’t going his way? I’d rather my footballers looked like they care than the opposite. He demands perfection from teammates? Great, if he demands it from himself too (and he does). We have a World Cup to win. This isn’t a school sports day.
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Mistakes may have been made. It would be weirder if not. If you put up a list of the personal lapses of judgement in my late teens and early 20s on a big screen in even a small town centre, I’d move permanently to live in a large hole in the middle of nowhere. Growing up is a non-linear pursuit and doing so as a superstar is a thousand times harder than in some quiet corner of any country you can think of.
The accusation of arrogance is harder to parse without getting angry. For arrogance is an inflation of one’s own importance and I don’t think it possible to overstate Jude’s. Self-assurance – now that’s different: an understanding of your ability and a psychological process to maintain belief in challenging or high-pressure situations. There is no footballer on the planet more capable of doing that at the same age than Bellingham. You can’t overstate the importance so arrogance becomes impossible.
Not only do we tend to conflate arrogance and self-assurance, we (and I mean the English here) fall into the trap of seeing demonstrative shows of confidence differently in outsiders. Eric Cantona can walk in with a collar turned up as if he owned the place, to quote Roy Keane, and become iconic. As a sporting culture we are wedded to the eternal fear of pride before a fall and as a result are rotten at allowing confidence to run free. No shows of self-belief please, we’re English.
For Bellingham, an extra challenge: few people truly know him. He is unique, a magnificent, generational English talent who has never made a single Premier League appearance. He doesn’t like speaking to the media (which is entirely his fair choice) and doesn’t like the intrusion. That lack of knowledge has bred rumour, conjecture and information that is hard to prove or disprove.
But what was never in doubt is that this talent always had to be front and centre because his talent and attitude deserves it. There is the second irony: the questions were over personality but find me a player in this World Cup who has worked harder for their country. Even without the goals, the dribbles, the ball protection, the passes and the tackles, Bellingham runs for two. Do as I say and as I do; I’m fine with that.
There is a link to England’s manager here too. In his interview after full-time in Miami, Thomas Tuchel was angry with the performance. England had just made a World Cup semi-final; surely happiness is the only appropriate emotion? How arrogant of Tuchel, thinking England should be even better. Or perhaps: this is how the elite think. Good is never good enough. Pats on the back only come at the end of the road, never halfway.
Bellingham did not engage with the criticism. He knew what he could do and he knew how self-assurance would assist it. A kid from Stourbridge walked into the Bernabeu and believed he could own it. He landed at this tournament and believed that being 23 was no barrier to leading your national team to its greatest day.
So forget arrogance and its negative connotations for good and just watch, appreciate, admire. Even if Jude Bellingham did believe that he was the centre of England’s world, it’s a joy to live in it. You wouldn’t want him to be anywhere but here.
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England are without defender Jarrel Quansah, who is seeing out a two-match ban after being sent off in Mexico. Defender Marc Guehi has been suffering with a hamstring issue, while midfielder Declan Rice has had a sickness bug and Reece James has only just returned to training.
With Quansah ruled out and James not deemed fit enough to start, Thomas Tuchel has opted to shift Ezri Konsa to right-back with John Stones slotting in alongside Guehi for an all-Manchester City centre-back pairing to combat clubmate Haaland.
Noni Madueke replaces his Arsenal teammate Bukayo Saka on the right-wing, with England otherwise unchanged from the side who beat Mexico.
Should England overcome Norway then victory sets up a semi-final tie against Argentina, as long as they beat Switzerland in their quarter-final in the early hours of Sunday morning. Either France or Spain would then await in the final should England make it that far.
Follow The i Paper’s live blog for the latest updates below.
England have two game-changers in Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham (Photo: Getty)
The dartboard is still there, players taking it in turns to take down Peter Crouch with bonhomie or even a well-placed arrow.
The content boom that became such a crowd-pleaser during Gareth Southgate’s great English makeover is an easy icebreaker for media sessions, lightening the mood and loosening tongues.
The return to Kansas City post-Mexico was supposed to be about decompressing before rising again in Miami, where Norway await in Saturday’s quarter-final.
While there has been some of that, Morgan Rogers explaining the benefits of England’s home from home in the American Midwest to a Norwegian journalist tasked with a dispatch from inside the enemy camp, there is also a low thrum of electricity crackling about the squad, a sense that some cosmic force is driving England towards the ultimate finale.
As an observer of the Southgate years, you never quite got the feeling the team believed the message. Southgate’s instinct for inclusion built genuine bonds but never quite the commensurate belief that all champions exude.
If Thomas Tuchel has achieved one step with this team it is in shedding the imposter syndrome that ultimately stalled Southgate’s vehicle, the feeling that against the very best there was something deficient in the English character that condemned them to fail.
‘There is no substitute for being out there and seeing things first hand,’ says Dan Walker (Photo: ITV)
“You know we’re in Salford, right?” joked Micah Richards as Joe Hart was eulogising about the “unbelievable energy” of the Azteca Stadium before England’s epic win over co-hosts Mexico.
Richards got a round of laughter in the studio, but the loveable pundit touched on one of the lively debates around this World Cup. Should the BBC be broadcasting from a futuristic studio thousands of miles away from the action? Does it affect the coverage? Do the viewers care? Or is it just one of those weird media obsessions?
Comparison is the thief of joy, as the famous saying goes, but here comparison is stealing the admiration that the BBC might have received for their state-of-the-art studio. The technology is impressive and it will be used by BBC Sport for years to come. The problem is, ITV’s backdrop has blown them out of the water.
Read more from former BBC presenter Dan Walker here
An hour before kick-off stadium concourses filling with Vikings. Bit warm for fur you would think. Cameras searching out the early settlers in the stands. Flags from Plymouth, Nottingham, Rushden, etc., the usual suspects.
Pickford becomes England’s most-capped World Cup player
A word for Jordan Pickford, before we inevitably curse him. In starting this evening, Pickford surpasses Peter Shilton to become the player with the most World Cup appearances for England.
Often doubted, never doubting. Pickford has repeatedly stepped up when England have needed him. He and Kane are the two seams that run throughout the last eight years.
Norway fans have gathered in their capital (Photo: Reuters)
Reporting from Hard Rock Stadium
Have heard from a Norwegian mate who says that the streets of Oslo are packed full already. The 9pm news was a single-issue edition focusing only on the World Cup. The top seven songs in the Norwegian singles charts are all football-related.
Jarell Quansah will miss the next two games after his red card against Mexico (Photo: PA)
It was half a smart play by Fifa. Revisit the case, adjust the tariff, double down. You might say Jarell Quansah paid the price for Fifa’s egregious (mis)management of the Folarin Balogun case.
Balogun, you may remember, was sent off for serious foul play, handed a two-match ban and was going fishing before Donald Trump picked up the phone to his valet, Fifa president Gianni Infantino, to protest injustice.
The exact process that led from the Trump call to Balogun’s reprieve is buried in mystery, protected by a regulation that allows Fifa’s disciplinary committee to revisit cases without explanation or account.
However, by upgrading Quansah’s red card offence to serious foul play and doubling his ban from one to two matches Fifa’s shadowy order could plausibly claim equivalence of process, namely that they went back over the evidence in the same way to ensure the “correct” outcome was reached and appropriate sanction applied.
Read more here from Kevin Garside, on Fifa’s decision and how England might cope
Erling Haaland has scored 20 goals in 2025-26 for his country alone (Photo: Getty)
If there was some doubt as to whether England were favourites in Mexico City, they cannot ignore or avoid that tag in Miami. The draw has opened up for England in a way that would make even Gareth Southgate blush: DR Congo, Mexico and Norway for a place in a World Cup semi-final. None of those are currently ranked in the top 18 in the world.
Yet if Mexico was a test of England’s steel and ability to cope in adversity and atmospheric pressure, Norway is a step up in quality. Like England, there is a sense of incremental improvement as they move through the knockout rounds.
Manchester City defender SJohn Stones comes into the back line (Photo: PA)
Reporting from Hard Rock Stadium
The England team has been leaked, much to the chagrin of many supporters. There will be two changes and a positional shift.
The biggest news is that Bukayo Saka is not considered fit enough to play 90 minutes and so will start on the bench with Noni Madueke given the nod – Saka will play the role of finisher again.
Meanwhile, Reece James may have trained but he’s still not available; bit of a farce that one. This time it’s Ezri Konsa, who becomes England’s fourth different starting right-back in the tournament.
That means Thomas Tuchel needed another central defender. He has gone for Manchester City pairing over the aerial ability of Dan Burn, so it’s John Stones and Marc Guehi.
A strange quirk of Norway’s World Cup record is that they have never beaten a European nation at the finals. That’s continued in 2026 with them beating Iraq, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire – and of course Brazil – but being brushed aside 4-1 by France. England are their most familiar opponents yet – nine of this Norway squad play in either the Premier League or Championship.
Asides from the obvious in Erling Haaland (Man City) and Martin Odegaard (Arsenal), there is Jorgen Strand Larsen (Crystal Palace), Kristoffer Ajer (Brentford), David Moller Wolfe (Wolves), Sander Berge and Oscar Bobb (Fulham), Egil Selvik (Watford), and Sondre Langas (Derby).
Have you recovered from the drama of England’s win against Mexico yet?
It’s time for the quarter-finals as the Three Lions face Norway for a spot in the final four.
The Scandinavian side boast Manchester City’s Erling Haaland amongst their ranks, who has already netted seven times at this World Cup.
Thomas Tuchel’s men’s defensive worries continue as Jarrel Quansah is suspended, but there is hope that the injured Marc Guehi may be available after taking part in training before the match. Declan Rice was also in training despite worries about illness.
We will bring you live updates on tonight’s match and insight from our reporters at the ground as the evening unfolds. Kick-off is at 10pm UK time.
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