Cristian Romero: Argentina Can’t Win Without Suffering as Old Foes England Wait in Atlanta

Cristian Romero has stopped expecting anything easy from this Argentina team. Three knockout matches into the defence of their title, the pattern has held every single time.

Argentina needed extra time to beat Switzerland 3-1 in the quarter-finals, with Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez scoring late to finally break down a stubborn Swiss defence after the score was locked at 1-1 following 90 minutes. It set up a World Cup semi-final against England in Atlanta on Wednesday. Speaking to FIFA afterwards, Romero said the manner of the win had become the team’s identity.

“It seems that we can’t win without suffering,” Romero said. “But I am fortunate and I feel proud. What we are doing is unbelievable, and we don’t want to stop here.”

A Pattern Through Every Knockout Round

The win over Switzerland was Argentina’s third gruelling knockout tie in a row. La Albiceleste needed extra time to get past Cape Verde 3-2 in the round of 32, then came back from two goals down to beat Egypt in the round of 16. Nothing about the run to the last four has come in comfort.

Romero, who plays his club football at Tottenham, said he and defensive partner Lisandro Martinez were emotional in the aftermath of the win over Switzerland, before turning his attention to the size of the task still ahead.

“It’s just another match,” Romero said of the semi-final. “We shouldn’t get carried away. It’s football. We are focusing on ourselves and on showing the DNA that we have shown in recent years. Sometimes you suffer, sometimes you play well and sometimes you play poorly, but the important thing is that we go out there with heart and try to take the initiative.”

Scaloni Downplays the History

Head coach Lionel Scaloni admitted his side had not been at their best against Switzerland but praised his players for the composure they showed in a match he described as highly physical and complicated. Asked what the England fixture meant to him personally, Scaloni kept his answer measured.

“The message is that this is a football match, and we are going to play against a great squad with a great manager, who I appreciate and admire very much,” Scaloni said.

Wednesday’s match at Atlanta Stadium will be the sixth meeting between Argentina and England at a World Cup. England have won three of the previous five, with Argentina winning two. The most recent came at the 2002 tournament in Korea and Japan, when England won 1-0.

Alvarez and Tagliafico Have Their Say

Julian Alvarez, who scored the opening goal against Switzerland in extra time, was full of respect for the opponent awaiting Argentina in Atlanta.

“A World Cup semi-final will always be a difficult match,” Alvarez said. “We’ve seen how they play and they are a great team with high-quality players. But we are focused on ourselves, and at the moment, on our recovery.”

Left-back Nicolas Tagliafico pointed out how rarely these two nations actually meet, given the history between them, and said Argentina had to treat the occasion with full seriousness.

“Argentina and England don’t meet very often,” Tagliafico said. “We have to prepare very well for this semi-final and fight to reach the final.”

One detail is worth noting from Argentina’s build-up: Lionel Messi, the tournament’s all-time leading goalscorer with eight goals so far this summer, has never faced England at any level in his career. Wednesday will be the first time. Messi turned 39 last month and has continued to defy his age throughout this tournament, surpassing Miroslav Klose’s long-standing record for career World Cup goals earlier in the competition.

A History Written in Big Moments

Few international rivalries run as deep as England against Argentina at a World Cup, even with the fixture appearing only six times across the tournament’s history. The two previous meetings before 2002 both turned into some of the most talked-about matches the competition has produced.

In 1986, at the quarter-final stage in Mexico, Diego Maradona punched the ball into England’s net for a goal that stood even after England’s protests, an incident now remembered as the “Hand of God.” Maradona then scored again minutes later with a run past several England defenders that is still replayed as one of the greatest solo goals in World Cup history. Argentina won 2-1 and went on to lift the trophy.

Twelve years later, at the last-16 stage of the 1998 tournament in France, David Beckham was sent off for kicking out at Diego Simeone, leaving England to play more than an hour with 10 men. The scores finished level at 2-2 after extra time, and Argentina won the resulting penalty shootout. Beckham got the chance to put things right four years later, scoring the only goal from the penalty spot as England beat Argentina 1-0 in the 2002 group stage in Japan.

Wednesday’s meeting will be the first between the two nations at a World Cup after that 2002 win, and the first ever at the semi-final stage. None of Argentina’s current squad, and none of England’s either, were involved in that last meeting, but the fixture still carries history that neither Romero nor Scaloni wanted to dwell on in front of the cameras this week.

At 39, Messi is playing in what is widely expected to be his final World Cup. His absence from this specific fixture across two decades of international football has been a quirk of scheduling and knockout draws rather than design, and it will end on one of the sport’s biggest remaining stages.

Defending the Title the Hard Way

Argentina arrived in the United States as defending champions, and every round so far has tested that status. The Cape Verde tie went to extra time before Argentina found a way through. Against Egypt, Argentina trailed by two goals before fighting back to win. Against Switzerland, a team that had conceded just once across their previous four matches at this tournament, Argentina were made to wait until extra time yet again.

For Romero, that repeated struggle is something to be proud of rather than a concern, a sign that the group finds a way regardless of how a match unfolds.

Argentina will now have four days to recover before facing an England side that beat Norway 2-1 after extra time in their own quarter-final, with Jude Bellingham scoring both goals. Both teams reached the last four the hard way, and Wednesday’s winner will play either France or Spain, who meet in Dallas on Tuesday, in Sunday’s final.

Argentina are chasing a second consecutive World Cup, a feat no nation has managed after Brazil won back-to-back titles in 1958 and 1962. England, by contrast, are looking to reach their first final in nearly six decades, dating back to 1966, when they won the tournament on home soil.

Argentina’s current title dates back to that 2022 final in Qatar, when Messi scored twice as Argentina beat France 4-2 on penalties after a 3-3 draw in extra time, a match remembered as much for Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick in defeat as for Messi finally lifting the one trophy that had eluded him. That win ended France’s hopes of becoming only the third nation to defend the World Cup, and gave Argentina their first title in 36 years, going back to 1986. Four years on, Messi and Argentina are trying to do what that Qatar final denied France, and a semi-final win over England on Wednesday would put them one step from repeating it.

The Individual Battle

Messi’s eight goals this tournament have kept him level at the top of the Golden Boot race alongside France’s Kylian Mbappe, with Bellingham some way back after his own double against Norway. A semi-final between Messi and Bellingham, two players separated by 16 years in age but level in the conversation about who is defining this World Cup, adds another layer to a fixture that already carries decades of history.

Romero will likely be tasked with helping shut down that threat on Wednesday, much as he and his defensive teammates spent Saturday dealing with a well-organised Switzerland side that had conceded so sparingly on the way to Kansas City. Lisandro Martinez, his central defensive partner, has lined up alongside him through this knockout run, and the pair are likely to again be central to whatever plan Scaloni settles on to contain England’s attack.

Whatever happens in Atlanta, Romero’s assessment of this Argentina side looks set to hold. Nothing about this run has come easily, and nobody inside the camp expects that to change now.

Scaloni’s players now have a short window to recover from three straight extra-time or comeback battles before facing an England side that arrives in Atlanta on the back of its own extra-time win. Both camps have spent the days after their quarter-finals managing fatigue and knocks as much as preparing tactically, with neither coach willing to offer much away publicly before kickoff on Wednesday.