Football Daily - World Cup: Argentina comeback ends England's hopes

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

Relive the atmosphere and instant reaction from 5 Live at full-time as England were knocked out of the World Cup by Argentina. Kelly Cates is joined by correspondent John Murray, ex-England players Paul Robinson and Matt Upson as well as South American football expert Tim Vickery.They ask whether England's defensive strategy after taking the lead cost them the game, and look at how the team bounces back following this defeat, with a bronze medal match against France still to come.We also hear from Tuchel, as well as captain Harry Kane and defender Dan Burn.TIMECODES 00:30 On the whistle reaction as England lose to Argentina.14:30 Did Tuchel's tactics cost England?18:35 Harry Kane interview with Kelly Somers30:30 Argentina v Spain in the Final33:00 England's next task - prepare to face France35:00 Dan Burn interview with John Murray39:00 Thomas Tuchel interview

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2.50. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. The People World Cup 2026. The Football Daily Podcasts with Kelly Gates. Listen on BBC sounds. There's the final whistle. Argentina have beaten England by two goals to one. The England players fall to the pitch.

Flat on their backs. And the Argentina players drop to their knees. in celebration. England were leading in the 85th minute. That's how close they were to a World Cup final for the first time for 60 years. But Argentina dug deep. And the world champions have won through

those goals from Enzo Fernandez and Laudaro Martinez. That one set up by Lionel Messi and Lionel Messi will take Argentina the defending champions to New Jersey for a world Cup final against Spain and England so near but yet so far England out to the defending champions just like four years ago in Qatar and there's a bit of nonsense now going on

again on the pitch and I think Morgan Rogers was involved in a bit of that and the referees in the middle of it as well and the players just milling around it's not too Ancrie absolute agony for the England players. Harry Kane looks disconsolate down there. Jude Barringham too. Thomas Tuchel, the man who is taken on by the Football Association to win the World Cup while he's fallen short but in the most dramatic of circumstances. In Argentina, the serial winners have knocked England out.

Paul Robinson. They've done a job on us that came here with a game plan in the first. half and you could see what it was to disrupt, to fly into challenges, to upset the England players to ruffle them up and they got to half time and that was half the job done. They've got the quality in Messi. I mean, he's a little magician, he really is. He's done it all tournament now. You look at the goals he scored.

You look at the balls that he's putting into England's box. They've done an absolute job on us, but let's be honest, they were the better side in the second half. You think of the opportunities that they've had, Jordan Pittford, made two outstanding saves, both posts were hit and it was only going to be a matter of time before they got that equaliser. I think England went too deep, too early.

I think they took the attacking players off, went to a back five and thought they could sit in and I think that was a mistake against a team with the quality of Argentina. You look at the quality that they've got and the players on the pitch to back yourself to defend for nearly 30 minutes

against the world champions and not concede. It was a big ask. I think Thomas Tuchel got that wrong. I mean, he's got a lot of decisions right. this World Cup, this tournament, but I do think trying to protect a lead against these this team was the wrong choice They've put in a shifting then you can see him down there on the pitch beneath us. They're all absolutely shattered gutted it's heart wrenching it's horrible I've been there But that was a game that they wouldn't have wanted to lose the way that it panned out

Another disappointment for England So the way it will go on for England their dream is over But your eyes are naturally drawn from way up you in the stands to Leonel Messi. Their dream, Argentina's dream of a second World Cup for Lionel Messi. At the grand old age of 39, is absolutely alive.

And Messi has gone around the England players. There have been handshakes. And now he's walked away and he's beckoned to his Argentine players, his teammates, to come with him. And they're gathering around now inside the penalty area to our right and celebrating with their jubilant fans in the stand. And that's it. Argentina, Spain, it will be in New Jersey on Sunday.

And Messi and his teammates punching the air and dancing down on the pitch. Well, what a match it's been, what a semifinal. We said it might be monumental, it might be a thriller, it might be a nail biter, and it might be a roller coaster, and it was all of those things. And it's gone Argentina's way. England one, Argentina two. John Murray and Paul Robinson inside the stadium here in Atlanta and we're joined also by Matthew Upson and Tim Vickery and as that always are in the ground at the end of games

of this magnitude sharply contrasting scenes to our right the Argentina players dancing celebrating the squad the backroom staff all out on the pitch and their fans just a blur of light blue and white as they bounce and sing and celebrate. But to our left, the England players still on the pitch, most of them, still alone most of them, not in pairs, not in groups, wandering around, just gathering their thoughts.

And the few England fans who haven't started to leave the ground, gathered over to our left-hand side, just standing still and staring out at the pitch. This isn't the time for them to commiserate with the team. We've seen such great moments between the England fans and the England players throughout this tournament. This is not yet the time for that, but the England players starting to make their way over

to those England supporters. Matthew Upsson, it's a hard way for England to go out of this tournament. It is, Kelly. It hurts. A lot of fans, all the players, everyone involved. It's an awful feeling. And, you know, to be in a position that we were, I think there's a level of frustration for me because

the psychology behind going ahead in a football match of this magnitude and then how that plays out on the pitch is just fascinating really because I just see us stop doing what was getting us in front we stopped we score the goal

and we stopped doing the thing that's going to win us the game and the moment you do that a team like Argentina they feed off that they smell it it's like it's innate it's instinctive for them and all of a sudden the swing of momentum after we spoke on that halfway point the break and the system had changed

it was just over it just felt like balls were swinging in the box the quality was insane it was off the charts with Messi DePaul the delivery coming in McCalliser should have scored we just stopped being bold brave and pressing high up the pitch

and that mid-block getting control of the game breaking it up. We just stopped. And it was really frustrating to watch because you could just see it slipping away out of our fingertips. And I think that would be something that would be really disappointing.

It's been a monumental effort from the players and another great campaign in terms of a semi-final. But the pain of going out at this stage again, it hurts deep. And also it starts to become a pattern. And we need to break that cycle. But you mentioned it there, Matt, the fact that the players, I know that Rashford and Tony came on very late in the game,

but the players on the pitch weren't those kind of forward attacking players up until that point. Thomas Tukal had made the substitutions to protect the advantage that England had. Yeah, absolutely. But, I mean, we'd start to lose a little bit of that grip prior to that break. So once the break had happened and the switches are made, we've got four defenders on the pitch, then Gehie goes in the middle, O'Reilly comes on, At that point, I mean, the goal, we've got everyone sat in that one line waiting for a cross to come in.

So it's almost like six players marking three Argentinian players. And it just needs that boldness to say, get out, get out the box, get out of my way, go and press the ball, get higher up the pitch. Let's do what we were doing that was winning us the game. And England looked, you know, I really felt after we scored, we're going to win this game. If we continue in this fashion, we're going to win the football match. it just changed. And now whether that's down to Argentina, I'm sure some of it is down to their innate ability

just to keep plugging away in games, but also it's the psychology of when you go ahead, how are you then going to treat that next 10 minutes of the game? And are you going to still keep doing the things that are progressive and on the front foot and the things that got you to that position in the first place? And I felt like we changed and we switched that. Paul, it's really interesting.

watching that group of England players who were just on the edge of the box at the end where the England fans are. Close-ups of a lot of those players faces, many of them in tears, many of them close to tears, including Anthony Gordon, Jordan Pickford, Jude Bellingham. They look devastated by this. They look like they haven't even moved. They're not talking to each other really by and large, maybe just starting to now. The England fans are applauding them. But they have that stare of men who don't really understand quite what's just happened to them. They'll be absolutely gutted. I mean, it's a horrible, horrible feeling.

And the amount of positivity that they've had around that squad, I think there was a genuine belief within that camp that they could go all the way to the final this year. I think the way that they've all spoken has been excellent. The post, both pre and post games. The press conferences have been, you know, it's been good from all the players that have come from. There was a real togetherness. And there's a group of players there that are hurting together. They're all stood individually, but as a collective, they'll all be hurting.

And these next 24, 12, 24 hours are going to be horrible for those players. And the supporters as well. Let's not forget about the supporters that have been following England around America and Mexico. And the money that they've spent to come and watch this, hoping that it would be this year, this would be the time that England would win the World Cup. We all know the hopes and the expectations of the nation and how desperate everybody is to win a World Cup. And once again, all that disappointment has come crashing down.

There was a great piece of sportsmanship. I just saw there, Kelly, from Enzo Fernandez, who actually has left the Argentine celebrations, and he ran all the way down the pitch to embrace Reese James, his Chelsea teammate, and Chalabar as well, and Noni Madhuake, who was his teammate last season before he ran away downfield. So, you know, some of the stuff that Argentina

got up to today, you know, wasn't great, but that was a nice touch. And that's the, that's the fine margins of international football. You have to use every weapon at your disposal. And even if the opposition doesn't like it, that's kind of not the, not the point of it. That the point of it, Paul, is to win the game. Exactly. You know, we were questioning it in the first half, but you could see that it got under the skin of the England players.

It ruffled a few feathers. They stayed in the game, obviously, till half time. And we're watching as the England players make their way off the pitch, the whistles are because the exit that they go through, the tunnel on the right-hand side of the ground is right underneath the Argentina supporters. And so the Argentina fans are whistling as the England players make their way off the pitch. But they are not leaving those Argentina supporters. And the Argentina players are now making their way over to the advertising hoardings in front of them

to celebrate further with their supporters as they reach a second successive World Cup final. Can they make it second successive World Cup? Tim Vickery is with us. Tim, is this Argentina side capable of this? Are they a team who are capable of the moments required to take them to World Cup glory once again? Well, they have lots of quality, but I can't believe that Spain will self-destruct in the way that England self-destructs. And England had Argentina exactly where they should have wanted them.

Exactly. And we said at half time, the space will open up. Argentina are terrified of England running at them. And that's where the goal comes from. The space opening up. Then it's a case of tearing them apart on the countertack. You've got both centrebacks on a yellow card. And what do England do?

And I'm absolutely baffled by the decisions that the coach has taken here. You've got to be way with a bad one at half time against Norway. this one really, really didn't deserve to come off because everything Argentina wanted England to do, they did. Argentina terrified all those runners going at them at pace. England take off all of the people who can do that. Argentina have been finding it very hard to pass their way down the field.

England say, well, you don't have to do that. You don't have to pass your way down the field. We'll hang off our own crossbar like a team of bats and we'll give you all of the space to do it. against Switzerland, Argentina were allowed back into the game by the Swiss centre forward getting sent off. Against England, Argentina were allowed back into the game by the England team choosing all of the wrong decisions

and I'm afraid this has to be on the coach. I've found the decisions that he made, the substitutions that he made, absolutely baffling. It was as if there were 30 seconds left when in reality there were over 20 minutes. And in the end, I think England had everything to close out that game and win it. but in the end the defeat our fear was thoroughly deserved.

Leonel Messi on the shoulders of Venzo Fernandez getting the bumps and I'm fairly sure that's not exactly what you want to be doing with your prize asset just before a World Cup final on Sunday. But he's still there, he's recovered and he's walking around the pitch now and chatting to people. But the point that Tim makes about Thomas Tuchel, Paul, you know exactly how the conversation is going to go now. This is the way it turns after an England exit when the recriminations start

And people are feeling extremely emotional about this decision. Alan Shearer has said the changes work for Tuchel in the last couple of games, but these are the fine margins of football in terms of him maybe getting the decisions wrong in this one. Wayne Rooney said you can't go a goal up and then surrender the ball. You want to be on the front foot. The pressure is on Argentina to get back in the game and talks about England sitting back and then cracking. And he said he was really disappointed. And then even from the journalist's point of view, Adam Crafton has said,

I can't recall a game of this magnitude where a coach has cost his team in this way, extraordinary and damaging for Tuchel. Miguel Delaney on X, I think that's close to Sackable from Tuchel. A coach appointed at great expense for his tactical acumen and ability to get over the line needlessly forces England miles from it. How seriously do you think decisions that Thomas Tuchel has made has cost England today? Without doubt, without doubt they have because they were so submissive when they were changes were regardless of what you think of a back five when you're in that situation you're

protecting a lead the back five is going to be five you can have a defend the midfield sat on top of you and England just went very very deep and they just invited the pressure on them England have played to their strengths for a lot of this tournament but actually against Mexico with 10 men they they used the same tactic and it worked and actually I said to John and a couple of the people that had a chat with I said that could have been a stick that was used to beat him if that had gone wrong but he got away with that so we're all we're praising in him saying that his in-game management's been good and his changes have been good.

But because it hasn't worked for him today, that will be the stick that he's used to beat him because it was so blatantly obvious the way of the pattern of the game changed. Do we not think that that... Sorry, Kelly, do we not think that that change in the shift in the team was before the changes though, Rob O as well? I think it's almost as soon as we scored, I felt like even before the hydration bake and the defensive changes, it just felt like the mentality of the team was completely different in terms of how they were going about the game and all that high press, the energy, the speed we were getting after

trying to force a mistake high up the pitch, winning the ball back. It just dropped off in the five minutes or so before that hydration break for me and I think then the changes just compounded it, but it was already on its way. Do you remember what the assistant coach was saying at half time? The longer the game goes on, the more Premier League intensity. They went out and did exactly the opposite. it. Yeah. It's been really difficult. How damaging, Matt,

do you think that this is for two-fold? Well, I don't know how damaging it would be. It could be considerable. You have to make those decisions. I can only think that he had the success with it in Mexico and thought that you can

execute that same scenario again, but it's against a very different team with different capabilities that love the hunt, love the suppressing and getting old of the opponent and ragging them about

and moving them everywhere and pressurising them. It's a different animal in that sense. But I just felt that we were getting so much joy with how we were playing. And to then not keep doing that, just keep, the goal shouldn't make any difference. You've got to almost treat it like it's still nil-nil,

keep doing what you're doing. And England with the dominant force in the game. So to change that, or whether or not he felt that the fitness or the energy or something was missing. So he had to go into protection mode. But that's kind of opposite to all the messages we've been getting and all the performances that we've seen

in that, no, we don't need protection mode. We can actually go after people. We're fit enough, we're brave enough, we're strong enough as a group. We've got each other's back, which I think the players have shown that. And it's just, yeah, it just feels a really negative way

to go out of the tournament. 25 minutes of this tournament has been so negative in that sense, which is a real shame. And as the celebrations continue for Argentina down to the right-hand side of the pitch, the players are there now. Many of them have got their shirts off, they're waving them around in the air. The Argentina fans are going absolutely nowhere. And in the midst of all of that, just over a little bit to the right-hand side, is the interview position where Harry Kane has been speaking to Kelly Summers. Well, Harry, it's the most heartbreaking way for your tournament to end.

I know it's going to be incredibly raw, but what are your immediate thoughts? Yeah, just got it for the boys, got it for everyone, the team, the staff, the fans. Yeah, we played a good game for the large majority of it. Once we went one new up, we seemed to, yeah, just try and hold on, which, you know, at this level is not enough. So just got it, got it because we've worked so hard to be here and the lads have given everything. every last bit of running, sweat, blood, tears, whatever it is. So to full short like we did today is, yeah, just cutting. Why was it so hard to get any momentum after the goal, do you think?

Yeah, we struggled to get pressure on the ball. I thought, especially first half and start the second half, we press them well. We, we, yeah, put them under loads of pressure, especially high up the pitch, which then allowed us to win balls, control the game a little bit better. After the goal, whether it's then putting more men forward or us just not, Being able to match them man for man, it just was wave after wave and we were trying to hold on lads to put in blocks in.

But in the end, it was just, it wasn't enough. Did it feel at the end that after the exertion you put in the last two games, perhaps it was almost one ask too far to find another response? Yeah, I don't know. The boys always are ready for any moment in the game. And when we went ahead, the messaging was to go again and get another goal. And then obviously once they scored their two goals, it was to try and find something. We couldn't quite get the momentum back in the game.

You're having to do this interview down the Argentina end of the pitch as well, which makes it even more difficult. But what can England learn from this? What can you take forward? Yeah, we had a lot of good moments in this tournament. A lot of good games, another semi-final. We talk about knocking on the door. We're close.

We just need to find that missing piece in the final stage of the tournament. You know, these tournaments take it out of you so much. effort and pressure and mentality and we've shown a lot of that throughout the whole six, seven weeks we've been together. But yeah, we're just missing that final piece. Thanks to talk to time. Thank you. While Harry Kane is giving that interview, Leonel Messi was just over to the side. He's sitting down on the pitch, just taking a moment to himself with a sort of half smile,

playing over his face and then getting up and making his way slowly around the group of players. of players such an icon in football, but particularly, not just to the Argentina fans, but to the Argentina players as well, many of whom are coming over to him and they want to celebrate with him. They know how important he is. They're still singing the players and the fans along together. And I think what was interesting about what Harry Kane said, Paul, was that the messaging at 1-0 was to go and get that second goal. And yet, when we watched England, it did look. just like two defensive lines almost in their own penalty area.

Well, if that was the message, it fell upon deaf ears because the England players didn't sanction what the manager wanted of them because as soon as they got the first goal, that was it. They were very submissive, sat off, went into a defensive mode.

But I found it hard to believe that that was the message because then we had the hydration break and the changes were made and he made those defensive changes at that point. If that wasn't the message, you make it a different tactical change.

I don't think you can play for that long against Argentina in that way. England has been eliminated every time they've faced a top 10 rank nation in the knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup since 1998. Is it just a case, Matt, of coming up against a side who have more experience

who won this trophy last time out? No, I don't... Honestly, I don't think so. I mean, if it is that then nobody would ever beat anyone with more experience would they i mean it's it's a factor yeah you're playing against the team that doesn't panic it's got world class they've done it with all of those things but really they shouldn't have been given the opportunity to display that and i think that that's the key here that's that's the that instinct that you need

when your opponent's wounded in that way that you have to then it going to overdrive again and go even harder at what you believe in and what you're doing. I think if England would have done that and been able to physically carry out that act, we'd have won the game. But we didn't. And there was a good, what, 13 minutes from that goal to the break, the hydration break. And in that period, Argentina just got momentum, started to build. Jed Spence made a super tackle, getting back in position.

And it was almost like we had to then, there was a turning point there for me. where you either go, right, we're now going to, this is everything, this is the whole tournament wrapped into this 25 minutes, we are going to stick to our guns, we're going to go, sometimes man for man at the bat, I back my players to deal with it, but in midfield you're going to get after them, we're going to get on the front foot, you're going to empty the tank, and we're going to play in a way that if we go out, you go out swinging, and okay, we've been beaten, but it didn't play out like that, and it went into protection. And I think when you do that against this team, it's like what Harry can,

Kane said his interview, can you see that amount of time out? And Tim said it earlier. It's too long. It's far too long. There's nearly half an hour left of the game. They're going to create chances. So I don't think the fact that they've been there and done it before. It's just for me about that in-game mentality and feel and instinct and killer instinct, really,

that you're going to take it to the next level. And we just couldn't pull that off. If the message is, we're going to. chase the second goal. You don't bring on Concer for the only winger that you've got out there, do you? No. It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense whatsoever. Because we don't have an outball then. There's no outball for England.

So England are then just trapped in their own 25 with no outball. And they gave Enzo Fernandez target practice. How many times did he have time and space to send those shots whistling close to our goal? It is... So Argentina

have come through wonderfully well. They haven't panicked. They've dug deep. But we saw very clearly in the first half that Argentina were judging themselves an inferior side to England.

That's where all the niggle comes in. That's where all the slowing of the rhythm of the game comes in. And England have them 1-0 against both centrebacks on a yellow card against the side that struggled to defend against pace with players running at them. And England take off

the only players they have who can run at them. Is it a lack of belief, Tim? lack of arrogance that you need. You know, I mean just to have that arrogance that we are better than them and really believe it. Yeah, when Concert came on with, it affected me 30 minutes still to go. That's a long, long time, isn't it?

I think it's so early to go negative. I think, in the opinion of many, many neutrals around the world, I think many neutrals were cheering on England in this game, and I'm sure in the last 20-25, they ended up swapping their allegiances. Because if England don't want to win, if you just want to get over the line like that, so I'm baffled because we're up against the side.

I know England's route has been hard, Mexico City and Miami and so on. But Argentina, they've come through two periods of extra time, and they're an older side. I really thought there. England had Argentina there for the taking. And great congratulations to Argentina. They came back with terrific quality.

The balls into the box were excellent. but Argentina could have scored four or five in the last 20. They absolutely battered us, Tim, in that last 20 minutes. It was the Alamo, wouldn't it? And I think the other thing to go back on is that, yes, the back three switches out of Mexico. We all kind of, you know, it was the right call. But don't forget, we had 10 men as well. We had 10.

So we were hanging. You're going to hang on. You're at their home stadium in that kind of environment. Absolutely the right call. and credit and it came play that brilliantly, but this was a very different scenario. If I can take it to boxing, Kelly, in boxing, you've got to beat the champion to become the champion.

And England were up against the champion tonight, and they didn't want to beat them. They wanted to try and squeak over the line when I think England had the weapons to really go out there and knock the champions out. And I think that this was a huge missed opportunity. The United States is about, to mark its 250th anniversary.

And so on the Global Story podcast from the BBC, we're telling surprising tales of American influence on the world stage and in ordinary people's lives all across the globe. We have this ability to export our story and a lot of people have bought it. I feel like the American dream is alive but not well. From the BBC, it's the United States at 250. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, I'm Alastair Bruce Ball, and I'll be commentating on the World Cup for the BBC this summer. It's a commentator, favourite World Cup moment.

France 4, Argentina 3 in Russia, 2018. Amazing goal from Benjamin Pavard in that game on the half-bally. What makes the World Cup such a special tournament? It's its exotic nature, I think, particularly as a kid, it just seemed to happen in far-off lands that you'd only ever dreamt about or heard about. The People World Cup 2026. Listen on BBC Sounds. And we can welcome Chris Sutton, who's been with us on Five Live throughout the tournament. Chris, what did you make of Tuchel tactics?

Well, I think the guys have pretty much nailed it. I think, you know, Tim especially. I mean, it was a coaching catastrophe from Thomas Tuchel. You know, the fact that England get themselves in front. And then basically hand Argentina, the initiative. defending deep another defender on. But it's quite a simple game football. You have to get up the pitch.

You can't expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality that Argentina have and keep giving the ball back to them. And that's what England did. And it's all on the coach, as far as I'm concerned. He made the changes. He was negative. So the question really which I'm going to ask is

how can you trust Thomas Tuchel to take this England team forward? And I don't care what anybody says. England have had a generous run in this competition. England haven't played well in 1.90 minutes in the World Cup. And, you know, World Cup semi-final, there's a big opportunity to get over the line against an average Argentina side. And they didn't look average in the last 30 minutes. Far from it.

But I think England, you know, certainly helped them with that. But this isn't a great Argentina side. They were lucky to go through against the Swiss. And Bolo got sent off when the Swiss were really dominating. I actually thought the Swiss would have been a tougher game but this is all on Thomas Tuchel that'll be really interesting to see what he says but I thought that was

a coaching disaster Paul I want to pick up with you on something that Matt and Tim were talking about just a few minutes ago about this idea that maybe you need that belief or call it arrogance or whatever you want to call it and it just reminded me of Anthony Barry's half-time interview in the game against Croatia

where he talked about England having gone a goal up and they almost look looked as though they were, they were frightened to lose the lead. They were almost worried about about going for it even further. And I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember his exact words. If, and Harry Keynes told us that, you know, that the messaging was to go for a second goal, maybe it's not quite what Matt was saying that it's about belief and arrogance. Maybe it's about absence of fear that maybe England were too nervous about losing what they already had.

They immediately went into protection mode. You can say that the manager didn't say go defensive, but it is natural at times. And if you are going to win big games in big occasions, you have to suffer at times, but you don't invite the suffering on. You don't want the suffering, but there will be periods of the game.

But to change it as he did and then to invite a team like Argentina onto you for 30 minutes, it's not going to happen. And I think, yes, there is an element of self-belief in that. But there's a number of games. It's a knockout tournament So it's hard at times not to have that mentality,

protect what you have and get over the line. But England were poor in that last 20, 25 minutes. And the manager's changes didn't assist in any way. So Tim, on Sunday, Argentina against Spain, the first time the copper America holders have met the reigning European champions in a World Cup final. Do Argentina have those big moments in them to go on and win this trophy,

be the first team in 64 years to retain the World Cup? Or are they going to come up against a Spain side that put in a brilliant team performance yesterday against France? Well, Spain aren't going to do what England did, are they? They're going to keep the ball. So it's a very different challenge. This is the game that should have happened. The Finalissimo, Champions of Europe and South America, there weren't any dates for it last year when Argentina wanted to play it. It was going to be played in March in the Middle East.

It got called off for obvious reasons, but Argentina didn't want to play it then. They're going to have to play it now. Spain, I think, clearly a favourite after, it was a magnificent collective performance, wasn't it, yesterday, an inner tournament which is trying to throw celebrity down our throat all the time, whether it's on

the field or all these sports stars that I've never heard of, off the field. It's all celebrity, celebrity, celebrity, and Spain were team, team, team, weren't they? So Spain is the toughest challenge that Argentina have had since France in the World Cup. The hope

may be from the Argentina point of view is that sometimes Spain struggle in front of goal. They got the penalty that kind of conditioned the game yesterday against France was a little bit random. Nothing had really happened in the game. There was no real danger to the goal. It's a little bit of an

unfortunate play from the French left back, Dina, and Spain are one-up. If they have to work harder for their goal against Argentina, then we've seen time and time and time again in this competition. that can always find a way to stay in the game. But I think there's no doubt whatsoever.

Spain will go into the final as favourites. Tim, thank you very much. Good to talk to you. I imagine we'll be chatting again ahead of that World Cup final on Sunday. But thank you for now. Look forward to it. Cheers. Thank you very much to Tim Vickery.

So it is Argentina against Spain on Sunday for the World Cup final. You will be able to hear full commentary of that here on Five Live Sport. For England, it's a game in Miami on Sunday. Saturday night, the third place playoff match, the game that nobody wants to play in. And that Ian Dennis was saying in the midst of commentary yesterday seems almost like a sort of wasted opportunity. Nobody really wants to be there. And nobody really cares whether you finish third or fourth. You want to get through the semi-final pool. No, you don't remember them normally do you? Unless it was your country, the team that comes

third or fourth in a World Cup. And it's a it's a tough one as a player to get yourself back up after been knocked out in such a fashion to then have to go and play in what they're calling the bronze medal match over here and obviously go back to Miami to the heat and the humidity in Miami. One, it's a game they definitely won't want and two, it's in a place that they won't want

to go back to because of the conditions. It's a very, very difficult one for Thomas Tuchel. I think he'll just rotate. I mean, he's obviously going to come up against the very good French side, but they're in the same boat. They're not going to want to have been there either. It's strange because it's such a big game

and it's built as such a big game, but there's two teams and management that won't want to be there and play it. And that game is, as Paul said, Matt, a really, really difficult one for the players to take part in. It's going to be really difficult for Thomas Tuchel as well, particularly in the aftermath of the conversations that you guys have been having here this evening, the thoughts that I've been reading from England fans and what they're saying about the reasons that England lost this game against Argentina, having had it in the palm of their hands up to the 85th minute, because of those, there's going to be a lot of difficult questions

asked between now and then of the England head coach. Yes, it's a bit of a shocker of a game, really, isn't it, to be honest. You know, once you've gone out and, you know, you've had the scenario that England have had to then get yourself into a place where you're going to have to play again on Saturday. It's not going to be easy. I mean like Paul said with massive changes which kind of dilutes the

the importance of the game really to be honest and it's going to be uncomfortable because the negativity is going to swirl and rightly so I think the questions that will be asked and that we've discussed here and what

have you and how Chris was talking about 606 I'm going to interrupt because Dan Byrne is with John Murray yes Dan Byrne standing in front of me Dan it's written all over your face your emotions Yeah, gutted. Very proud of what we've done this World Cup.

I think it's just small margins. Battle hauntled for a while, I think we were so close to doing it. We're probably too passive after we were scored, which is frustrating. Normally we probably would have liked to have seen that out. But, yeah, they've got quality and they've created chances and scored. Yeah, what was the word on the bench before you came on? Yeah, much of the same as what I've done before. to be honest, I think we're, to be honest, I feel like we're played like we're,

and we're a man down for some of it. I feel like we're, yeah, we were too passive, but we know that they've got quality. We're comfortable defending, we're box, but, yeah, players found too much space, which hasn't happened in the previous games. So, yeah, as I said, frustrated, very, very proud of what we've done. But yeah, I thought we could have done it. Just give us a feeling of what it was like when you got back in the dressing room there? Yeah, flat, I think you can tell.

Yeah, lads are good. It's not a nice place to be. And it'll be a while before you can probably really reflect and see what we did in this tournament. But as I said, I thought we had the quality to go all the way, so that'll hope will for a while. Thanks for coming out and speaking, Dan. Kelly.

Thank you very much for that. Just listening there, Chris Sutton, to Dan Byrne, he was one of the players that Thomas Hooker brought on to help to kind of shore up English. when they did have the advantage against Argentina. So this isn't on him. But what happens now with England? You know, Michael Richard said on BBC 1,

Thomas Tuchel was brought in to be the difference. If he gets it tactically wrong in a World Cup semi-final, even with a long contract ahead of him, what happens now? Well, there certainly needs to be questions asked about Thomas Tuchel. I mean, you know, just looking at the game. game and the way that the game turned, that was down to, down to his coaching as such. He was so super negative when he should have been positive. You know, I've mentioned before. In football,

you have to get yourself up the pitch. He could have been more positive with the substitutions. Watkins on the bench. You had Rashford on the bench. Why not take Harry Kane off as well, who was a who was a passenger in the last half an hour. But this is this is all on Tuchel. An average Argentinian side. And, you know, England won. One, up and should have put the game to bed and they didn't because he was too negative. So he's got a lot of questions to answer. Well, we've talked a lot about the England manager. Let's hear from him.

Thomas Tuchel's with Kelly Summers. Well, Thomas, the World Cup journey ends here at the semi-final. What are your immediate thoughts at full-time? Yeah, we're disappointed. We were so close, but we got too passive after we scored and conceded a lot of chances and could not turn the ball position around. and just conceded so many crosses and chances and shots. So, yeah, we were close, but couldn't keep the level up after we scored.

You've made defensive substitutions in the past couple of matches when we have gone ahead in a game. You did the same again today. Why do you feel they didn't work today? Yeah, I did also offensive substitutions in the last games. We just tried to help the player. We conceded straight away. We decided to go to a back five because the gaps were far to open.

They won every header. They kept crossing and crossing. So we went to a back five to close the gaps inside and be strong in the air because straight after our goal with no substitution, we just conceded way too many crosses and way too many chances. So we tried to help, but of course the responsibility is on the coach. And if it doesn't go wrong, it's easy to say that it was, if it doesn't go well, it's easy to say. say that it was wrong. Given the point in the game that it was,

was there ever any thought process in your mind about maybe making, trying to go for the second goal? Yeah, but it doesn't help if you don't have the ball. If we couldn't get out, of course we wanted to go for the second goal, but I had not the feeling that offensive substitution would help. It was we stayed in our four four two, but became passive, more and more passive.

We couldn't win any balls, couldn't keep the ball. So I think it was not a structural problem. We changed nothing after the goal, but the match changed completely. But again, there's no problem. I can understand that these discussions are out there. And like, of course, million of coaches after the game, who know, who know it better. I guess the question would be as well, though, did it perhaps invite more pressure on a defense that had already put so much into previous matches?

Well, you can discuss this with a million coaches. I have to make a decision on the pitch. It's how I analyzed the match and I did the decision, take the responsibility. No regrets over that then. Any other regrets, Thomas? No in the moment no regrets. The team gave everything and we were very, very close. I think we were, we deserve to be up, 1-0. Played one of our better matches, maybe the best match in the circumstances. Team was top. We couldn't bring it over the line. No, in the moment, no regrets.

You mentioned throughout the tournament that we see a better England. Did we ever really see Thomas Tuchel's England that you wanted to see? I don't know, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I have no answer to that question because I don't really know what that means. It's, I don't know, I think we saw the mentality throughout the match and the strong group and we played the matches how they were. We played, played a strong, against strong teams in the group. We played, we had a lot of miles, a lot of traveling, we played in altitude, we played in 10 men, we played in the heat, we played in the heat, we played in the heat. We overcame every obstacle. We were very, very close today. It's not the moment now to analyze the full tournament.

We just went out because we lost a crucial match. Thanks for time to us. Chris Sutton, there's anything that he said in that interview given him any more credit in the bank with you? Not really. I mean, for him to say he has no regrets, I think he really needs to give his head a bobble. I mean, you know, he was watching. He was watching a different game to everybody else.

And if he thinks that the team have played well throughout this tournament, I mean, you know, England have had a pretty gentle run. The fact of the matter is, England were 1-0 up against Argentina, looking to go through to a final. And because of the way that he changed things, and because of his negativity, that's why England are out. This is all on Thomas Dupel. Thank you, Chris. Matt.

Yeah, I just think it's interesting, okay. When you hear him talking, he talks about the players, passive once you've gone one-nill up and you've got an hour's gone in the game. That's an interesting word to use, isn't it? And it's an interesting way to think that you would then become passive.

And to me that starts to, I think you can analyse his choices and look at them as negative 100%, and that definitely doesn't sit well with me. But I also look at it and think, well, perhaps he feels, how can in this moment, how can I change the player's mentality off the side of the pitch, with 65 minutes gone in a game like this, I don't think

you can. So for me, his option, his go-to then, is to do what he did and just be negative and defensive and sure. I'd like exactly what he described. But it just makes a little bit more sense to me. If that's how he feels and he looks at his team and goes, right, because for me, the reaction at that point, you go, one, they're like, there should be a spring in your step. It should be like, right, we're super aggressive. We're on the front foot. We've got the arrogance. We believe him we're going to go and win this game.

We went the other way as a team. So his reaction as a coach then, this is how I'm seeing it, is that he thought, right, perhaps we can just be really negative, shore it up, defend the box well we might get away with it. And we didn't. But yes, he's going to get a lot of stick and we're going to be really negative. But to me there, how he described that made a little bit of sense, if I'm honest, because I think it's easier for him to do.

that on the touch line as a coach, then it is to change the player's mentality's mid-game. Yeah, I think that's obviously something that they've worked on before. He didn't sound himself either day. I mean, it was obviously a difficult time for an England manager to do an interview with all the emotion going on.

But when Kelly asked him about Thomas Tuchel's England, I mean, he's often spoke about Thomas Tuchel's England and what he wants from his team, the pace, the power, the forward thinking. And we all thought, didn't we, after the Croatia game, oh, we've got, what a great team we've got, we're going to go on and win the World Cup.

playing on the front foot, scoring four goals, and it just didn't materialise. He played far too defensive, and I don't know how he can come out and defend that, because it's so obvious to everybody watching at home and watching here in the stadium as to how deep England and defensive they were. I mean, he's been quite relatively open and honest throughout the tournament, Robbo, in terms of what he said. Do you feel like he just didn't want to say that? He just didn't want to be there, I don't think.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he didn't feel comfortable saying, no, I didn't see them, England, And it would have been okay to have said that because I think we can all kind of get on board with that and hear that as a realistic comment. But we've won matches, we've got through a semi-final, so we're churning it out. But I think to say that, have you seen the England

that Thomas took on that, that England that he described there that you just said, it'd be hard to say that he has seen that in this tournament. And I think he found that quite difficult, didn't he? You can half understand what he did in the Mexico game with the 10 men and going to that back five. Yeah. Different scenario. And different level of opponents as well.

Yeah. But I actually think he's seen that and thought, oh, I don't mind that footprint. We might use that again. And I just think he's made the decision in the wrong game against the wrong opponents today. Our correspondent, John Murray, is waiting in the tunnel. John, you're going to be speaking to the players

and to Thomas Tuchel. What are your thoughts on how this tournament has gone for England and the England manager? Hi, Kelly. Yes, I'm just still in the interview area There are many Argentina players in here now. Lysandra Martinez has just been down speaking to our Argentine colleagues just next to us. So some big smiles.

I can see Emmy Martinez as well, who's not far away. Big smile on his face, as you can imagine back in another World Cup final. From an England point of view, really in this big room here, we've only seen Harry Kane and Dan Byrne as of yet still waiting for Thomas Tuchel to come into this area. And on a thought, you know, that's another four years now for the World Cup for England. 60 years will become 64 years. And I know that England have gone closer in recent years,

both European Championship and World Cup, fourth semi-final in five years, two finals. But as we all know, Thomas Tuchel, a coach of his grade, was brought in to take that extra step and to win England a tournament. And, I mean, it's tough, but they have fallen. short and I think again remember what Michel Plattini said about English football and English footballers the lions in the autumn and lands in the spring and I do wonder it'll be interesting to hear from

Thomas Tuchel you know does he believe that England can actually make that final step John Murray thank you very much now remember we will have commentary of England's third place playoff against France on Saturday that one is at 10 o'clock and commentary of the 26 World Cup final live from New Jersey. It's Spain against Argentina and that is at 8 o'clock this Sunday.

At the People World Cup 2026, the Football Daily Podcasts with Kelly Cates. Listen on BBC Sounds. The 2020-3 Ballandor, France footballer is Lionel Messi.

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