\n Argentina advanced to the semi-finals with a dramatic 3-1 extra-time victory over 10-man Switzerland, with Lautaro Martinez’s late goal sealing their passage to face England. Relive our minute-by-minute commentary to see how things unfolded.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Official lineups for Argentina-Switzerland <\/p>\n
Argentina:\u00a0E. Martinez – N. Molina, C. Romero, L. Martinez, Tagliafico – Paredes, De Paul, Mac Allister, E. Fernandez – Messi (Cap.), Alvarez.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Switzerland:\u00a0Kobel – D. Zakaria, Elvedi, Akanji, R. Rodriguez – Freuler, Xhaka (Cap.) – Ndoye, Rieder, R. Vargas – Embolo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 05:49And that’s a wrap!<\/p>\n
Thank you for following us!<\/p>\n
Here’s our recap:<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 05:48Lautaro Martinez seals it<\/p>\n
The ball rebounds to Lautaro Martinez just outside the box and the Argentina forward doesn’t hesitate!\u00a0<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 05:33GOOOOOOAAAALLLL<\/p>\n
\n 12\/07\/2026 – 05:31Paredes makes way for Lopez<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 05:30Switzerland refuse to surrender!<\/p>\n
10-man Nati keeps pushing for a winner<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 05:28Otamendi replaces Romero<\/p>\n
\n 12\/07\/2026 – 05:26Second half of extra time underway<\/p>\n
\n 12\/07\/2026 – 05:25Half-time<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 05:19Messi’s free kick hits the wall!<\/p>\n
Difficult day for La Pulga<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 05:15Lautaro Martinez booked too<\/p>\n
He is cautioned after a bad tackle on Akanji<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 05:13Almada cautioned<\/p>\n
Almada receives a yellow card from the referee after a reckless and useless challenge<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 05:11Switzerland hunker down for survival<\/p>\n
With Embolo’s red card leaving them a man down, Switzerland have set up a compact defensive fortress. The Nati’s strategy is clear: defend resolutely and hope to get to penalties<\/p>\n
\n 12\/07\/2026 – 05:07Extra time underway<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 05:03End of the second half<\/p>\n
Extra time beckons<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 04:56Messi’s chance goes astray!<\/p>\n
Messi has space and time to shoot after a good pass finds him outside the box, but his strike is slightly off target and drifts past the right post<\/p>\n
\n 12\/07\/2026 – 04:549 minutes of added time<\/p>\n
12\/07\/2026 – 04:53Multiple substitutions before potential extra time<\/p>\n
Both sides make wholesale changes in the closing stages. Switzerland introduce Muheim, Amdouni, and Widmer to replace Rieder, Ndoye, and Sow respectively. <\/p>\n
rgentina respond with their own tweaks as Montiel replaces Molina and Lautaro Martinez comes on for De Paul. The managers are making fresh adjustments as they bid to control the closing phases of this quarter-final.<\/p>\n
\n 12\/07\/2026 – 04:45\n <\/p>\n
\n 12\/07\/2026 – 04:41Tagliafico makes way for Gonzalez<\/p>\n
Argentina<\/a> survived two epic battles against Cape Verde<\/a> and Egypt<\/a>. The defending champions overcame these scares, with their experience and depth proving decisive. Lionel Messi<\/a>‘s side need to avoid the Nati trap to get to the semis and take on England.\u00a0<\/p>\n Switzerland<\/a> made their remarkable journey to the quarter-finals with Manzambi’s emergence as a World Cup<\/a> star. The young forward combined with the Nati’s tactical discipline could prove crucial in overcoming a traditional powerhouse like Argentina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Argentina advanced to the semi-finals with a dramatic 3-1 extra-time victory over 10-man Switzerland, with Lautaro Martinez’s late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[1680,3350,38365,82,17,20910],"class_list":["post-102290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-argentina","tag-england","tag-lionel-messi","tag-sport","tag-switzerland","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116908303682668777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}