{"id":692460,"date":"2026-07-15T05:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692460\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T05:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:35:09","slug":"world-cup-2026-england-v-argentina-semi-final-marc-guehi-says-pressure-is-on-reigning-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692460\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: England v Argentina semi-final – Marc Guehi says pressure is on reigning champions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuchel could become only the fourth manager to reach a World Cup final with a team other than their home nation – and first since Austrian Ernst Happel with the Netherlands in 1978.<\/p>\n

But his England side will have their work cut out against Argentina, who are in the World Cup’s last four for the third time in the past four editions.<\/p>\n

When asked by BBC Sport’s Sami Mokbel if the rivalry between the two sides would provide extra motivation on Wednesday, Tuchel said: “We don’t use it as fuel. We know why we’re here – we know what we want. <\/p>\n

“We were never shy of expecting that from us, of saying it, of dreaming it. We’re in the semi-final – we arrive very hungry and want the next win.” <\/p>\n

Political tensions, especially around the Falklands War in the 1980s, have dominated the relationship between the two nations. <\/p>\n

After Argentina’s 3-2 win over Egypt<\/a> in the last 16, their players were filmed singing a chant referencing the islands. <\/p>\n

But Tuchel said: “We respect our opponent, but we don’t dip into historic events. We don’t make it bigger than it is. <\/p>\n

“It is a big football match and a big occasion. We are very excited and grateful, but very hungry and ready to go.<\/p>\n

“It’s a big rivalry and it’s two big football nations who love football.” <\/p>\n

The semi-final will also be the first time England will face Argentina great Lionel Messi<\/a> on the international stage. <\/p>\n

“How he carries the team is absolutely incredible – there are no words,” said Tuchel when asked about the Argentina captain. <\/p>\n

“In this tournament he is just the leader, and the key player in any team he plays. <\/p>\n

“When Messi has the ball, the movement starts. The technical delivery of Messi is on the highest level. There is a lot to take care of, but we are here to play our way in the semi-final. We are here to impose our style, our strengths. <\/p>\n

“A lot of coaches have tried [to stop Messi]. He seems to always have another gear and another solution. He’s unique. We know his quality.<\/p>\n

“We know how big the obstacle is. We know how big the ask is.” <\/p>\n

Tuchel also spoke about how he likes to try to unwind during what has been a long summer camp.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes you just go on a bike, and you need a big parking lot and an ice cream in your hand,” he said.<\/p>\n

“For 15 minutes, you feel like 15 years old. 15 not 50! You enjoy your evening in a warm summer for 15 minutes with an ice cream, and you reconnect to that beauty of that feeling which we all have inside of us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuchel could become only the fourth manager to reach a World Cup final with a team other than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-692460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}