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England were desperate to protect their lead as time ran down in their World Cup semi-final against Argentina. Coach Thomas Tuchel made line-up and strategy changes to build a wall in front of the goal.
Argentina and Lionel Messi simply kicked it down.
England led 1-0 late in the second half before Messi assisted goals by Enzo Fernández in the 85th minute and Lautaro Martinez in the second minute of stoppage time to give Argentina a wild 2-1 win on Wednesday and a place in the World Cup final against Spain.
Tuchel’s tactical choices in one of the biggest games in one of football’s biggest rivalries will likely be scrutinized and criticized for years. England missed their chance to return to the World Cup finals for the first time since 1966.
“They won every header. They kept crossing and crossing. So we went to a back five to close the gaps and be stronger in the air,” Tuchel said.
“Immediately after our goal, without substitutions, we just conceded too many crosses and too many chances. So we tried to help,” Tuchel said. “But of course the responsibility lies with the coach. And … if it doesn’t go well, it’s easy to say it was wrong.”
Tuchel’s chess moves could not contain Messi, the maestro of Argentina’s attack. In the 38 minutes between England’s goal and Argentina’s winner, Argentina had a whopping 88% of possession, according to Opta.
It was only the second time this century that a team scored first in a World Cup semi-final and failed to reach the final, according to Opta. The other blown lead was also by England, in 2018 against Croatia.
England took the lead after Anthony Gordon’s goal in the 55th minute. But Argentina quickly shifted momentum with furious pressure on England’s defence.
To protect the lead, England moved closer and closer to their own goal, hoping to build the kind of impenetrable wall they had when they held on to beat Mexico in the last 16 despite being down to 10 men.
Tuchel replaced defender Reece James with Dan Burn and midfielder Declan Rice replaced defender Nico O’Reilly in the 82nd minute.
“It’s disappointing to give up the space we did in the last 20 minutes,” England captain Harry Kane said. “It allowed not just (Messi) but the other players to grow into the game and feel more confident and ping balls into dangerous areas. In the end it was too much for us to stop.”
Fernandez struck barely three minutes after the English substitutions and scored on a precise right-footed attack just outside the penalty area. Messi set up the play with a pass to his team-mate and England’s defenders failed to shut him down before he ripped the shot that curled past diving goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
The defending champion kept coming and England’s wall kept crumbling. Argentina hit the crossbar and missed another header across the face of the goal before Martinez sealed it with a close-range header when England’s defenders lost him to a cross from Messi.
“They got tired,” Martínez said. “They pressed for 60 minutes and then just ran out of steam. They got their goal and sat back. It gave us more composure to move the ball around and stretch the field.”
England’s defense had drawn praise after previous games, particularly for how it hunkered down in the second half of a 3-2 win over Mexico in the round of 16 as El Tri peppered their opponents’ back line with cross after cross. But it came when England were down a player due to a 54th-minute red card on Jarell Quansah.
Burn, the 6-foot-7 (2-meter) defender who shined during this stand in Mexico City, said Wednesday’s approach didn’t work.
“Off the ball, we probably defended a little too deep,” Burn said. “With the quality of the chances that Argentina created, I felt it was a matter of time… To be 10 to 15 minutes away from the World Cup final – we should probably have seen that through.”
Report from the Associated Press.
