Argentina reached the World Cup semi-finals after a hard-won victory against a 10-man Swiss team. Xhaka and co took the fight into extra time, but Julián Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez settled the tie. It finished 3-1, and now Messi and Argentina get England.
Alexis Mac Allister scored first for Argentina, just ten minutes into the match, finishing from a Messi corner kick. The score remained 1-0 throughout the first half. Switzerland levelled through Dan Ndoye in the 67th minute and pressed hard for more.
But just five minutes later, the whole game took a turn when Breel Embolo was shown a second yellow card, for simulation, and sent off, leaving his team with 10 men. Argentina couldn't find the Swiss net in the ninety minutes, and the match went into extra time.
After a goalless first extra-time half, many started thinking of the penalty shootout, but Argentina settled it before it got that far. Julián Álvarez lashed a long-range shot into the top corner in the 112th minute, and Lautaro Martínez added a third nine minutes later.
Lionel Scaloni was candid about a laboured display and about his team's luck. "We knew Switzerland were a very physical team. They caused us a lot of problems, but fortune was on our side."
The coach also welcomed goals from both strikers after weeks of questions over his forward line. Martínez, who had started the first four matches, came off the bench in the 85th minute to replace Rodrigo De Paul.
Messi went without a goal for the first time at a World Cup since the win over Poland at Qatar 2022, but supplied the assist for the opener. "Once again we had to suffer, but this team never stops believing. We are once again among the four best in the world!!! Let's go!!!" he wrote on Instagram.
FIFA's Arsene Wenger praised Scaloni's approach after Embolo's dismissal. "To bring on Thiago Almada and Lautaro Martínez at that stage of the game, while keeping Julián Álvarez on the pitch, that is a decision full of courage and clarity," Wenger said.
Argentina have now scored in 15 consecutive World Cup matches and the win keeps alive their bid to become the first side to retain the trophy since Brazil in 1962.
It was a third straight dramatic knockout. Argentina beat Cape Verde 3-2 after extra time in the round of 32 and overturned a two-goal deficit to defeat Egypt 3-2 in the last 16. Almada summed up the mood: "We came into this as world champions and now we're back among the last four again. We're absolutely delighted because this is what we wanted."
Argentina face England in the semi-final in Atlanta on Wednesday. The two nations have never met with Messi on the pitch. Their last encounter was a 2005 friendly in Geneva.
