Julian Alvarez's Extra-Time Stunner Sinks 10-Man Switzerland and Sets Up England vs Argentina

Argentina beat 10-man Switzerland 3-1 after extra time at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and the goal that broke the tie will be replayed for the rest of the tournament. With the quarter-final locked at 1-1 and Switzerland packing their half in the hope of penalties, Julian Alvarez collected the ball 25 yards out in the 112th minute and bent a beautiful strike into the top right corner. Lautaro Martinez added a third in the first minute of added time at the very end, after Thiago Almada's initial effort was kept out, and Lionel Scaloni's side had survived their second extra-time examination in three knockout games. The reward, in front of 69,045, is the tie the whole draw had been quietly building towards: Argentina against England in Atlanta on Wednesday, at 8pm UK time, for a place in the World Cup final against France or Spain.

A corner defended once, then not at all

Switzerland began well, which made the manner of the opening goal all the more irritating for them. Inside 10 minutes Argentina forced 2 corners in quick succession, and twice Alexis Mac Allister was left standing unmarked. The first escape went unpunished. The second did not. Lionel Messi picked him out with the delivery and Mac Allister guided in a header that owed everything to a defence looking the other way. For a side that needed to make the world champions uncomfortable for 90 minutes, conceding to the tournament's most rehearsable routine inside 10 was a self-inflicted start.

To their credit, Switzerland did not fold. Breel Embolo was sent clear on 32 minutes and only a combination of Lisandro Martinez and Emi Martinez stopped him getting his shot away. Remo Freuler then wasted a promising free-kick position on 43, going for goal himself with 4 team-mates waiting in the box and missing by some distance. Five minutes after the restart Embolo had the clearest chance of the lot, and Lisandro Martinez recovered to produce a genuinely world-class block to deny him. The pattern was set: Switzerland were creating, Argentina were surviving, and the game was waiting for something to tip it.

Ndoye's leveller and the VAR call that changed everything

The tipping point arrived on 67 minutes, and Switzerland earned it properly. After a spell of sustained pressure that had already forced Emi Martinez into saves from Dan Ndoye and Granit Xhaka, Ndoye played a neat one-two with Ricardo Rodriguez and fired underneath the Argentina goalkeeper from a tight angle. It was a fine goal at the end of Switzerland's best passage of the match, and for 5 minutes the quarter-final was exactly the contest their first-half chances had promised.

Then came the moment the tie will be remembered for, at least in Switzerland. Leandro Paredes was booked for a foul on Embolo, the sort of routine free-kick that usually passes without comment. Instead, under the new mistaken identity rules, the VAR recommended a review, and referee Joao Pinheiro emerged from it pointing not at Paredes but at Embolo, showing the striker a second yellow card for simulation. Embolo was inconsolable as he left the pitch, and it is hard to blame him. He had been Switzerland's most dangerous player, twice denied by excellent Argentine defending, and his evening ended with a dismissal for a foul that was initially awarded in his favour. Sky Sports' Dan Long noted afterwards that Switzerland were deserving of their equaliser and might even have forced a winner had Embolo stayed on. His dismissal changed the game.

Argentina pushed for a winner in normal time, Messi and Mac Allister both passing up chances, the latter heading over from 6 yards when he met Nico Gonzalez's cross on 89 minutes. Extra time it was.

Alvarez answers the penalty question

Down to 10 men, Switzerland made their intentions plain: sit deep, defend the width of the box, and drag the world champions to the lottery of penalties. For the first 15 minutes of extra time it worked. Then Alvarez took the question out of the shootout's hands. His strike from 25 yards was the kind that ends arguments as well as matches, bent into the top right corner, and it took the wind out of a Swiss side that had spent 40 minutes running on defiance alone. By the time Lautaro Martinez turned in the third in the dying embers, after Almada's shot was parried, the race was long since run.

Switzerland go home having given the holders their most awkward night since Egypt took them to the 93rd minute in the last 16, and there is no shame in the shape of their exit. A team chasing a first-ever World Cup semi-final matched Argentina for an hour, scored a deserved equaliser, and were undone by a red card they will dispute all the way home and a strike worthy of winning any match. Their route here, through a comeback win over Canada and a gritty goalless draw with Colombia, suggested a side built to frustrate better teams. For 112 minutes, they did exactly that.

Verdict: England vs Argentina, 24 years in the making

So the semi-final the neutrals wanted is on. Argentina against England, Wednesday night in Atlanta, the first competitive meeting between the nations in 24 years and only the latest chapter in one of international football's spikier rivalries. Messi and company will start as the tournament's reigning champions, but England fans watching this one will have noticed the same things Dan Long did: Argentina have now been taken to extra time twice in three knockout games, and only Enzo Fernandez's 93rd-minute winner against Egypt spared them a third. This is not a side gliding through the bracket. It is a side finding ways to win, which is either a warning or an encouragement depending on your colours.

The fatigue ledger, at least, is balanced. England played their own extra 30 minutes against Norway, so both semi-finalists arrive in Atlanta with 120-minute quarter-finals in their legs and the same recovery time. The winner faces France or Spain, who meet in the other semi-final after France eased past Morocco in Boston and Spain edged Belgium late in Los Angeles. Argentina can call on Messi, widely regarded as the finest player of his generation, and in Alvarez the scorer of arguably the goal of these finals so far. England's talisman right now is Jude Bellingham. Wednesday will tell us which counts for more.

Sources: Sky Sports.