Lionel Messi has done it again. He has dragged Argentina into another World Cup final.
There they will face the well-oiled machine of Spain, purring into metronomic motion at exactly the right time. France were inexplicably flat in exiting; England succumbed to their own self-doubt.
In my first World Cup column, I said ‘my early picks for glory’ were ‘France and Spain. They arrived in the semi-finals as the two form sides, with France the slight favourites.
What we witnessed on Tuesday night was total Spanish domination, a complete trust in their system, and the triumph of the footballing collective over Didier Deschamps’ collection of individual stars.
We wondered how Spain would cope with the threat of Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, and Bradley Barcola, well the answer was deceptively simple, they just didn’t let them have the ball.
This wasn’t some interminable tiki-taka though, this was controlled, composed possession, brimming with inventive intent.
The French chased Spanish shadows and grew increasingly dizzy, stretched, and frustrated as they did so. Although it was in many ways the ultimate team performance from Spain, two players stood out: Rodri and Dani Olmo.
Manchester City’s Rodri set the tempo for the game and remained its conductor throughout.
Olmo meanwhile, drifts between the lines with a spacial awareness that’s almost unmatched in football.
The picture of the pitch that he has in his head at any given time is a high definition one and he can exploit a gap before others are even aware of its existence.
The most remarkable thing about Spain’s performance was how routine they made it look. Part of the reason for that is playing in such a way is just second nature to them.
They’ve done it since they were kids, they’ve done it in the under-21 team, and they will have done it every day in training during the World Cup.
Spain have the most developed playing style and clearest identity of any nation in football.
Still, many had good reason to think that France could knock them out of their smooth, strutting stride.
But French flair was nullified and the longer the game went on, the more passive France became, in what ultimately proved to be a rather meek exit.
Spain will start the final as favourites and they will no doubt look to play in exactly the same way as they did in dispatching France.
For more than an hour of the second semi-final, it seemed as though Spain would be facing England in Sunday’s showpiece occasion.
But then, England reverted to type. And they retreated. It was Thomas Tuchel’s decision and he has to take responsibility for it. Sitting deep and trying to hang on for 30 minutes against Argentina is quite a different prospect from doing so against Mexico.
England threw away their lead and their commanding position in the game.
The first half was scrappy and slow but England still did what they needed to do: pressed high, got wide when they could, especially when their fullbacks pushed up, and gave Jude Bellingham opportunities to run at Argentina’s defence, often drawing fouls in dangerous positions.
That was the route to victory and Anthony Gordon’s well taken goal signposted it.
But England turned back, Tuchel turned back, just as Gareth Southgate had mistakenly done in previous tournaments.
Gordon came off and Ezri Konsa was sent on to make up a back five. The English backline looked bemused rather than bolstered.
The implicit message that Tuchel was sending to his players was a negative one, essentially he was indicating that he didn’t trust them to see the game out on the front foot, didn’t trust them to keep the ball, didn’t trust them to press on and get a second goal.
In truth, Tuchel panicked. But Lionel Scaloni didn’t. It’s probably easier to keep calm and carry on when you have Messi leading your team.
The GOAT was slow for the first hour, indecisive almost, and crowded out.
In the first half Messi was dropping deep to try and get on the ball.
England’s retreat meant that suddenly he was strolling around just 30 yards from their goal, and then 20, and then getting to the byline.
Several times he flashed the ball across goal with his wand of a left foot. The warning, glaring as it was, went unheeded.
From the moment of Enzo Fernandez’s equaliser, Argentina’s victory seemed as inevitable as England’s growing doubt.
Tuchel had doubted his team, doubted himself, and England’s fragile confidence drained with each challenge that Messi glided by.
England had conceded territory, conceded possession (they had just 12% of possession between taking the lead and conceding the second goal) and eventually conceded the winner.
This time Messi did the damage with his right foot and Lautaro Martinez banished all doubt.
