In a hotly-anticipated, heavyweight last-four clash, Argentina and England meet today for a place in the 2026 World Cup final, with Spain awaiting the winner at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. The first World Cup encounter between the Albiceleste and the Three Lions in 24 years, it will be their sixth all-time meeting at the tournament - and marks the latest chapter in a rivalry which, for both on and off-the-field reasons, has proved consistently combustible.

Rattín red lights blue-touch paper

Argentina and England first met at the World Cup in 1962, with goals by Ron Flowers, Bobby Charlton and Jimmy Greaves earning the English a 3-1 group-stage win. The teams then collided four years later - and it was this quarterfinal clash that kickstarted their bitter enmity.

At Wembley Stadium, Geoff Hurst’s late header won an ill-tempered game for England, who would go on to lift the title a week later. And in the years since, the Argentinians have maintained that their defeat to the tournament hosts was a “scandal” and a “robbery”, chiefly because of the controversial sending-off of their captain, Antonio Rattín.

With just 35 minutes on the clock in London, the West German referee, Rudolf Kreitlein, dismissed Rattín for what the official termed “violence of the tongue” - this despite the pair’s apparent lack of a shared language.

Speaking in 2016, on the 50th anniversary of the game, Rattín insisted he had not insulted Kreitlein, and had merely sought an explanation for what, in the South Americans’ view, had been a string of unfair calls. “I saw that all his decisions favoured England... corners, fouls, he even invented handballs,” Rattín, who died last weekend at the age of 89, told in an interview in the Argentinian media. He added: “I couldn’t believe it [when he sent me off].”

Incensed by his dismissal, Rattín initially refused to leave the pitch, before finally being led down the touchline by law enforcement. Kreitlein later claimed that, although he could not understand what Rattín had said to him, “I could see in his face what he was saying”.

After the final whistle at Wembley, England manager Alf Ramsey had little sympathy for Rattín or his teammates, branding the Argentinians “animals”. Indeed, an angry Ramsey could even be seen stepping in to prevent his players from swapping shirts with their opponents.

The ‘Hand of God’ and the ‘Goal of the Century’

Two decades on from that fiery matchup at Wembley, when the teams met again in a World Cup quarterfinal, Argentina exacted their revenge. Their ’66 defeat alone would likely have lent plenty of edge to the teams’ 1986 clash in Mexico City - but events of a non-footballing nature made it a grudge match of a spectacular proportions.

Just four years earlier. Britain and Argentina had engaged in a 10-week armed conflict over sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, a tiny Atlantic archipelago some 300 miles off the Argentinian coast. June 1982’s Falklands War had resulted in a British victory and the deaths of over 600 members of the Argentinian military.

In the summer of ’86, the war remained “a wound that was still open” for the Argentinians, says Jorge Valdano, who was part of the Albiceleste team that faced England. “We had to manage our emotions,” Valdano told an interview with AS. “Otherwise, we risked ending up with three players sent off.”

Led by their legendary skipper Diego Maradona, a player whose brilliance ultimately won them the ’86 tournament, a suitably pumped up Argentina won 2-1 at the Estadio Azteca, securing their first ever World Cup victory over England. And they did so with a pair of Maradona goals remembered for very, very different reasons.

Early in the second half, England’s Steve Hodge volleyed a wayward clearance back into his own box, where Maradona jumped for the ball with goalkeeper Peter Shilton. Hand outstretched, the Argentine punched the ball past Shilton and into the net. To the disbelief of the English, the officials found no fault with the finish. Maradona later dubbed his goal the ‘Hand of God’; England’s manager, Bobby Robson, retorted: “It was the hand of a rascal.”

Four minutes after Maradona’s controversial opener, England could have zero complaints about his second. Picking up the ball just inside his own half, Maradona pirouetted away from Peter Reid and Peter Beardsley, before setting off towards goal. Defenders Terry Fenwick and Terry Butcher both came out to meet him, but he jinked past both and into the area. Rounding Shilton, he passed the ball into the net, despite a last-ditch, second attempt from Butcher to dispossess him.

“You have to say that’s magnificent‚” commentator Barry Davies said on British TV, summing up English fans’ feelings of consternation and awe at what they had just seen. In its 96-year history, the men’s World Cup has witnessed plenty of wonderful goals; this one is widely considered the best of the lot.

France ‘98: Beckham vs Simeone

Twelve years after Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’-‘Goal of the Century’ double whammy, Argentina and England squared off again at the World Cup, this time in the round of 16. Once again, Argentina won; once again, there were fireworks.

In a game that ended 2-2 in Saint Étienne, all four goals were scored before half time. After trading penalties, the teams each netted sublime strikes: first, an 18-year-old Michael Owen sliced through the Argentinian defense, before pinging the ball into top corner; then, on the stroke of half time, Argentina’s beautifully-worked free-kick routine teed up Javier Zanetti to wallop in a leveller.

But the game’s most-talked-about moment came after the break. With the second half only a few minutes old, Argentina’s Diego Simeone barrelled into the back of England’s David Beckham. “I just remember the ball being played to me and then being hit from behind,” Beckham told the 2023 documentary Simeone: Living Match by Match. “I remember Diego putting his hand on the back of my head, even rubbing it or pulling my hair a little, and then I just reacted.”

As Simeone began to walk away, a prostrate Beckham flicked out his right leg, catching his opponent on his right calf. Ever the streetwise operator, Simeone needed no further encouragement to flop to the floor theatrically - and the Danish referee, Kim Milton Nielsen, brandished a red card in Beckham’s direction. Down to 10 men, England produced an admirable rearguard action to hold out for penalties, but were beaten from the spot. And Beckham shouldered the blame.

The British media absolutely laid into him. Memorably, one tabloid led with the headline: “10 heroic lions, one stupid boy.” Egged on, no doubt, by the press’s fury, fans also inflicted a liberal dose of ire on Beckham. Shamefully, one group of angry supporters even hung an effigy of the Manchester United player outside a London pub.

Beckham sinks Argentina in Sapporo

Fast forward to summer 2002, though, and Beckham’s standing among the England fans was rather better. Named national-team captain in 2000, he had, after all, just dragged his side to the World Cup; had it not been for Beckham’s injury-time free-kick against Greece the previous October, Sven-Göran Eriksson’s men would not have secured automatic qualification. And, once at the tournament in South Korea and Japan, Beckham gained further redemption for his ’98 red, by scoring the goal that beat Argentina - and contributed to the Albiceleste’s early exit.

Drawn together in the opening round, the teams faced each other in their second Group F game. Having won their opener against Nigeria, Argentina sat top of the section; England, on the other hand, had labored to a disappointing draw with Sweden.

But the Three Lions claimed a fully-merited victory in Sapporo. After Mauricio Pochettino’s trip on Owen, Beckham smashed in a 44th-minute penalty that proved the game’s only goal. At the final whistle, he “bore the look of a man who had exorcised a demon or two”, wrote The Guardian’s Sean Ingle in his match report. “And, if truth be told, so did the rest of his England team.”

The defeat was costly in the extreme for Argentina. While England went on to reach the quarterfinals, Marcelo Bielsa’s men were eliminated from the group stage, finishing outside the top two after a matchday-three draw with Sweden. It remains the only occasion since 1962 that Argentina have been knocked out of the men’s World Cup in the first round.

At a glance - every men’s World Cup meeting between Argentina and England:

• 1962, group stage: England 3-1 Argentina
• 1966, quarterfinals: England 1-0 Argentina
• 1986, quarterfinals: Argentina 2-1 England
• 1998, round of 16: Argentina 2-2 England (4-3 pens)
• 2002, group stage: Argentina 0-1 England

England vs Argentina: kickoff times, how to watch in the U.S.

In the semifinals of the 2026 World Cup, England and Argentina meet today, Wednesday, July 15, with kickoff in Atlanta at 3:00 p.m. ET/12 noon PT.

Viewers in the U.S. can watch the last-four matchup live on Fox Network, Telemundo, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, Fox One and fubo. You’ll also have the option of following live-text coverage of England vs Argentina right here at AS USA.

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