Defending champion Argentina defeated Switzerland 3-1 in overtime on Saturday to advance to the 2026 World Cup semi-finals.Julian Alvarez broke the deadlock with a brilliant long-range shot in the 112th minute, before Lautaro Martinez added the third goal late in overtime.Argentina will face England in Wednesday’s semi-finals after the Three Lions beat Norway 2-1 earlier on Wednesday.
Mac Allister gives Argentina an early lead
Argentina started brightly and took the lead in the 10th minute.Lionel Messi took a corner kick from the left and Alexis McAllister scored to give the defending champions the lead.Messi did not score in the game, ending his streak of nine consecutive games at the World Cup, but he still played a key role in Argentina’s victory.
Swiss counterattack before red card
Switzerland refused to give up and equalized through Dan Ndoye in the 67th minute.However, a few minutes later, the game situation changed dramatically.Leandro Paredes was initially booked for a foul on Blair Embolo. After a VAR review, officials ruled that Embolo had gone down before any contact was made.As Embolo had already been booked earlier in the game, the card was transferred to him under FIFA’s “mistaken identity” protocol. It was his second yellow card and the Swiss team was reduced to 10 men.This is the second time in World Cup history that the “mistaken identity” rule has been used to overturn a yellow card decision.
Argentina reinforcements
Despite their numerical advantage, Argentina had to wait until overtime to find a breakthrough.Julian Alvarez finally put the team back ahead in the 112th minute with a wonderful long-range shot.As Switzerland equalized again, Lautaro Martinez scored in overtime to seal the 3-1 victory.
Argentina remains unbeaten
Argentina now extend their unbeaten run fifa world cup to 12 games.The defending champions had to fight hard in the knockout stages, needing extra time to beat Cape Verde before falling two goals behind Egypt in the last 16.Against Switzerland, they once again found a way to win and fulfill their dream of defending the World Cup.The win also means the top four teams in the FIFA rankings – Argentina, England, France and Spain – all advance to the semi-finals.
