Argentina’s knockout games under the stewardship of Lionel Scaloni have rarely been for the faint-hearted since the coach took over in the wake of the disastrous 2018 World Cup campaign. But the Albiceleste are pushing the suspense to ridiculous proportions in this 2026 edition as they look to defend their title.
Two heart-stopping wins in the space of four days have left Argentina once more within three games of football’s ultimate prize. But the question is, will anyone back home be in a fit state to celebrate should Lionel Messi & Co deliver the fourth star in a week’s time in New York?
On paper at least the team’s path to the last eight looked straightforward enough. A last-32 stroll against everyone’s favourite underdogs, Cape Verde, followed by a clash against Egypt which promised to push La Scaloneta somewhat harder but with no real risk to their World Cup campaign. How wrong the paper was, as Argentina endured a pair of thrilling 3-2 victories clinched in the nick of time, the last so stressful as to ensure Buenos Aires’ cardiologist community an early and comfortable retirement.
We have been used to seeing Argentina push into seemingly formidable leads before contriving to make things more interesting, but this was something different. A lot of credit has to go of course to a combative, talented Egypt team whose competitive spirit boiled over into unbridled anger by the end of the day in Atlanta, but it has to be said that neither Scaloni nor his players made lives easy for themselves.
Usually such a wily tactician when it comes to setting up his troops at kick-off, the coach erred by packing the midfield against a team who were more than happy to bypass the middle altogether, with the result an Argentina side that lacked speed at both ends of the pitch and were exposed in each phase for much of the first eighty minutes. The champions fell behind to two well-taken goals and were lucky to see another called back for a soft (but correct!) foul call on Lisandro Martínez, while Messi missed his second penalty of the World Cup and mostly shared his team-mates toils and frustrations in a match to forget.
If we have learned anything by now, though, it is that you simply cannot write this team off. Scaloni dipped into his bench and this time made the right calls, particularly with the entry of Lautaro Martínez and, rather more unexpectedly, Gonzalo Montiel. Messi led the charge with a perfect cross headed home by Cristian Romero and then picked up on Montiel’s pass to level the game. With the game’s shape almost totally broken down, and Leandro Paredes turning hero seconds earlier to stop an Egypt break, Argentina then launched their own lethal counter, Lautaro’s cross finding the head of Enzo Fernández to end the match, send the Albiceleste through against Switzerland and incur furious Egyptian wrath from the sidelines and the stands.
Is this World Cup, as several Egypt representatives fired, rigged for the champions? If so you would hope the powers-that-be would make it much easier than it has been so far. Argentina have had to fight tooth and nail through every second of this knockout stage and another battle is on the cards facing a tough Switzerland side that dumped Colombia out on penalties. They will have to be better than they have been at this World Cup, above all in the last two games; but if one thing is clear it is that in Messi’s sixth and last finals, nothing will be easy for their opponents either as they look to make history.
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