{"id":672410,"date":"2026-07-13T17:27:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T21:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=672410"},"modified":"2026-07-13T17:27:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T21:27:54","slug":"world-cup-semifinal-prediction-argentina-vs-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/13\/world-cup-semifinal-prediction-argentina-vs-england\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup Semifinal Prediction: Argentina vs England"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Argentina vs England is one of the most hotly anticipated World Cup semifinals of all time. Our panelists offer their previews and predictions for the match featuring Lionel Messi vs Harry Kane, a great rivalry between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c621y75w2x2o\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">legendary<\/a> football nations. We also have predictions for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/13\/world-cup-semifinal-prediction-france-vs-spain\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">France vs Spain<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Argentina vs England (Wednesday July 15th in Atlanta)<\/h2>\n<p>Steen Kirby: Argentina have scratched and clawed into the semifinals, nothing came easy against Cape Verde, Egypt, or Switzerland, all of whom rued their missed chances to upset the defending champions. Against Switzerland, Argentina scored early but then the let off. Only to take advantage of the Swiss going down to 10 men to emerge as late winners in extra time. Argentina have played close games, but are yet to go to penalties. England have relied on the duo of Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane to carry them through games offensively, although the defence with Dan Burn and co. has been surprisingly solid when called upon.<\/p>\n<p>This is not likely to be a high scoring clash, Lionel Messi still carries Lionel Scaloni&#8217;s Argentina, with some of their younger attackers continuing to sit on the bench, though Lautaro Martinez and Julian Alvarez were both difference makers in past games. Argentina&#8217;s experience and mettle matters, though Thomas Tuchel as England organized and full of belief. Argentina&#8217;s defence with Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martinez seems capable of limiting Kane\/Bellingham, and forcing other England players to step up. Argentina have not played convincing football at times this tournament but with two games left, they are capable of raising their level.<\/p>\n<p>Prediction: <strong>Argentina<\/strong> 2-1<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"430\" height=\"335\" style=\"border: 0; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 0; display: block;\" src=\"https:\/\/live-odds.casinokings.com\/embed\/30278312\" scrolling=\"no\" loading=\"lazy\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Barry Dixon:<\/p>\n<p>Two historical rivals, both on and off the pitch, go head-to-head in the second semi-final of this World Cup. Memories of past games and a certain handball will be replayed a lot in the build-up as Kane and co take on Messi and co for a place in the final.<\/p>\n<p>England are currently on a four-game winning streak, scoring at least twice in each game, with Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham in top form; however, they can be vulnerable in defence, and Argentina will try to put that defence under pressure at every opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>La Albiceleste\u200a (The White and Sky Blue) have not been <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/04\/lionel-messi-keeps-saving-argentina-but-scaloni-has-decisions-to-make\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">convincing<\/a> so far and have just scraped past Cape Verde, Egypt and Switzerland to reach this stage. But in Messi, despite his age, they have a player who can conjure something from nothing, be it a goal or an assist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOB2TehtnY8\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 7250px; aspect-ratio: 7250\/4833;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>This is set to be a feisty affair, and, heat permitting, a game played at a fast pace with both teams looking to attack and unsettle defences that can concede goals. Don\u2019t be surprised if this game goes at least into extra time.<\/p>\n<p>Prediction: <strong>England<\/strong> 3-2 Argentina (after extra time)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Argentina vs England is one of the most hotly anticipated World Cup semifinals of all time. Our panelists offer their previews and predictions for the match featuring Lionel Messi vs Harry Kane, a great rivalry between legendary football nations. We also have predictions for France vs Spain Argentina vs England (Wednesday July 15th in Atlanta) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1442,"featured_media":672418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<smartframe-embed customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBPMZ7iorj\" style=\"width: 100%;max-width: 4950px;aspect-ratio: 4950\/3218\"><\/smartframe-embed><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support -->","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,161,9367,2132],"tags":[798,979,32736,264,41,2157],"class_list":["post-672410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international-football","category-predictions","category-world-cup","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-argentina","tag-england","tag-harry-kane","tag-lionel-messi","tag-world-cup-predictions"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672410"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672425,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672410\/revisions\/672425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}