Argentina reaches the World Cup final for the second straight cycle after a 2-1 comeback over England, but the story leaving Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Wednesday night starts in the third minute. That’s when referee Ismail Elfath waved play on after Enzo Fernández’s elbow caught Elliot Anderson in the head, a decision pundits spent the rest of the night calling a missed red card.
Anthony Gordon put England ahead in the 55th minute, finishing a move started by Morgan Rogers, and for half an hour that lead held. A place in Sunday’s final looked like it might belong to the Three Lions instead, continuing the tension that built through the buildup to this rematch. Then Lionel Messi went to work. His pass out of a short corner found Fernández with room to shoot, and the Chelsea midfielder curled a strike past Jordan Pickford in the 85th minute. Two minutes into stoppage time, Messi did it again, whipping in a cross that substitute Lautaro Martínez headed home for the winner.
Argentina will now face Spain on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a final that avoided any repeat of the other semifinal matchup from earlier in the bracket. Spain beat France 2-0 on July 14 to get there first. England, meanwhile, drops into Saturday’s third-place match against France at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
None of that has quieted the anger over the opening minutes. Official records show no red cards for either side, just yellow cards for Anderson, Cristian Romero, and Lisandro Martínez, despite a challenge that left Anderson on the turf and Jude Bellingham screaming for a card. Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy summed up the reaction that spread across social media: “How is that not a red? He elbowed a guy in the head. You step on a guy’s foot, and it’s a red or penalty shot. Elbow a guy in the head? Nothing.” The clip circulated for hours, and the debate over Elfath’s whistle followed the match all the way into the buildup for Sunday’s final.
Argentina-England World Cup meetings have a habit of turning into arguments like this one. The 1986 quarterfinal at Estadio Azteca is still the reference point. Diego Maradona punched in the opener in the 51st minute, a goal FIFA itself still catalogs as the “Hand of God”, then dribbled through five England defenders four minutes later for what was later voted the goal of the century. Gary Lineker pulled one back in the 81st, but Argentina held on, 2-1. Twelve years after that, in Saint-Étienne, the flashpoint was a red card instead of a handball. David Beckham kicked out at Diego Simeone after Simeone had fouled him from behind, and the referee sent Beckham off in the 47th minute of a match tied 2-2. England played more than half the game a man down, forced extra time anyway, and still lost the shootout 4-3. Simeone later admitted he oversold the contact. “Let’s just say the referee fell into the trap,” he said in a 2002 interview. “You could say that my falling transformed a yellow card into a red card. In fact, the most appropriate punishment was a yellow. Obviously, I was being clever.”
That history is why Wednesday’s non-call landed the way it did. Nearly every Argentina-England World Cup match since 1986 has carried some version of the same question: whether a different whistle in the biggest moment would have changed everything that followed. This year’s edition arrived at the same conclusion the previous ones did. Argentina survived the controversy and the scoreline both.
For Messi, the night added two assists to his tally. He and Kylian Mbappé remain level on eight goals apiece atop the tournament’s goal charts, and the extra assists give Messi the edge in the Golden Boot race heading into the final. Lautaro Martínez has now scored or set up a winner in three straight knockout matches off the bench. Spain waits at MetLife Stadium having already beaten France comfortably, and it will arrive as favorite against an Argentina side that has needed second-half rescue jobs in back-to-back rounds. Elfath will not be the referee on Sunday. Whoever gets the assignment will be under a different kind of scrutiny before a ball is even kicked.
