Julian Alvarez's 112th minute screamer sends Argentina past 10 man Switzerland into the semis

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Argentina are through to face England in the World Cup semifinal after grinding out a 3-1 extra time win over Switzerland in Kansas City, in a game that was nowhere near as comfortable as the final scoreline suggests. Alexis Mac Allister headed Argentina ahead in the 10th minute from a Messi corner, his tenth career World Cup assist, all of them to different players, but Switzerland leveled through Dan Ndoye just after the hour mark

The turning point came when Breel Embolo was sent off for a second bookable offense, VAR catching him diving after he had already been carded earlier for a rough challenge, leaving Switzerland to play the rest of normal time plus all of extra time a man down. Even shorthanded they held firm defensively for nearly 50 minutes, forcing Argentina into a stressful chase for the winner

That winner finally came from Julian Alvarez in the 112th minute, a rocket from outside the box into the far upper corner that snapped Switzerland's resistance, his first goal of the tournament in just his third start. Lautaro Martinez added a third late on to settle any remaining nerves as Argentina broke forward on the counter after a Swiss turnover deep in their own half

It is Argentina's second extra time win in three knockout games this World Cup, and their third semifinal appearance in the last four tournaments, keeping alive their bid to defend the title they won in 2022. Messi now gets two more chances, the semifinal against England on Wednesday in Atlanta and then either the final or the third place playoff, to extend his own record for career World Cup goals, currently sitting at 21

Messi and Argentina survive another close call to reach the World Cup semifinalswww.npr.org

[ScarletDaemon]

Embolo's second yellow for simulation after VAR review is going to be talked about for a while, brutal way to lose a player in a quarterfinal

[Idle Mila]

Alvarez stepping up when Messi couldn't unlock the defense is exactly the kind of squad depth that wins tournaments, great moment for him personally

[BigDog]

Switzerland holding on a man down for basically fifty minutes deserves way more credit than a 3-1 scoreline is going to give them in hindsight

[Luca73]

England versus Argentina in the semifinal was such a mouthwatering matchup, genuinely hard to call which way it was going to go

Tuchel screwed up with no subs at 70mins
Energetic wingers to hold up the ball

[Foundry20]

Messi at 39 still picking up assists and setting records in this tournament is just remarkable to watch play out in real time

[David]

Two extra time wins out of three knockout games has to be taking a physical toll on this Argentina squad heading into the semi

[Caitlin86]

Curious if Scaloni rotates the squad at all before Wednesday given how much extra football they've played compared to some other teams left in it