ATLANTA \u2014 Lionel Messi sent in the cross that sent Argentina to the\u00a0World Cup\u00a0final after another improbable comeback.<\/p>\n
Trailing 1-0 going into the last five minutes of regulation time, Messi fed a pinpoint ball to substitute Lautaro Martinez in the second minute of injury time to give the defending champions a 2-1 victory over England on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Messi also provided the assist to Enzo Fernandez in the 85th minute for the equalizing goal.<\/p>\n
At the end of another exhausting match \u2014 another match in which Argentina was stretched to the final minutes \u2014 Messi dropped to his knees in celebration.<\/p>\n
Argentina, which will play Spain in the final on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is now one game away from becoming the first team to win back-to-back World Cups since Brazil in 1958 and 1962.<\/p>\n
Anthony Gordon had given England the lead in the 55th minute but the team’s other chances failed to find the back of the net.<\/p>\n
Fernandez scored the equalizer with a long range effort as Argentina pressed desperately for a goal, and Martinez headed in the winner with time running out.<\/p>\n
Argentina had to come through yet another tough match at this year’s expanded 48-team tournament after surviving scares against Cape Verde and Egypt.<\/p>\n
The game resumed\u00a0one of the biggest rivalries in international soccer\u00a0and there was a raucous atmosphere in the stadium even before kickoff as both sets of fans tried to drown out the other team\u2019s national anthem.<\/p>\n
That continued on the field in a first half that was repeatedly broken up fouls.<\/p>\n
Leandro Paredes went in late on Jude Bellingham early in the game. Fernandez did likewise with Elliot Anderson soon after.<\/p>\n
A tense first half ended goalless, with no clear chances, but the game opened up after the break.<\/p>\n
England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford denied Julian Alvarez and Gordon found the breakthrough for England, converting a cross from Morgan Rogers.<\/p>\n
Argentina pressed. Substitute Nico Gonzalez was denied by Pickford and Alexis Mac Allister came even closer with a header off the post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 Lionel Messi sent in the cross that sent Argentina to the\u00a0World Cup\u00a0final after another improbable comeback.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-804317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}