Messi Faces England for First Time in World Cup Semi-Final
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- Argentina face England in the World Cup semi-final at 20:00 BST on Wednesday in Atlanta — a fixture Messi has never played in despite 200+ appearances and 125 goals for his country.
- Messi failed to score for the first time this tournament in Argentina's 3-1 extra-time quarter-final win over Switzerland, but still leads the Golden Boot race with 8 goals — tied with France's Kylian Mbappé — and is the World Cup's all-time leading goalscorer.
- England and Argentina have not met in almost 21 years; the only previous match since Messi's 2005 debut was a friendly in Geneva that he missed after being shown a straight red card 30 seconds into his senior bow against Hungary.
- BBC pundits offered contrasting verdicts — Micah Richards hailed Messi's "next level aura," Chris Sutton said Tuchel's England should "relish" playing this Argentina side, and Wayne Rooney flagged Messi as a potential "weakness defensively" who can still define games with key moments.
- South American football expert Tim Vickery told BBC Radio 5 Live that Argentina fans already sang "he who doesn't jump is an Englishman" during the Switzerland win and view England as their "biggest rival."
- Messi's scoring record shows Bolivia as his favorite opponent (11 goals in 12 matches), with Uruguay (6) and Brazil (5) also among his prolific targets; Qatar is the only nation he's faced more than once and failed to score against.
Why it matters: Messi has scored against nearly every international opponent over 200+ caps but never faced England — Wednesday's semi-final finally delivers that matchup against a side Argentina fans call their 'biggest rival.' Tuchel's England must solve a 39-year-old who leads this tournament's Golden Boot race with 8 goals and is the World Cup's all-time top scorer, with a final place on the line.
