Argentina overcomes a second half deficit and defeats England 2-1 to advance to the World Cup

Since the World Cup has started, a lot of people felt that Argentina was going to be the favorite to win it all. They had so many obstacles that they had to overcome with their leader Lionel Messi, scoring eight goals in this tournament. In order to return to another World Cup Championship, they would have to get past a tough England team, who was unpredictable.

Coming into this game on the England side of the ball, Harry Kane was the key player that Argentina had to watch out for. Kane has been very aggressive with making the right reads to put his team in the right position to win close games. Argetina knew that they could not play passive like they did against Switzerland.

The first 10 minutes of the match was very aggressive. A lot of the players were fouling each other, and it got to the point that the broadcasters were questioning if and when the referee was going to take control of the game. By the end of the first half, both teams combined for 19 fouls. Argentina controlled 56% of the possession but only had two shots and 0 shots on targets. It seemed like they could not figure out how to attack England and passed the ball conservatively.

Coming out of break, Argentina's goal was to insert Messi more and let him dictate the pace of the game. Argentina did just that. The first two minutes of the second half, Argentina had back-to-back chances to score but was denied by England's goalkeeper. Within the 54th minute Anthony Gordon scored on a cross kick to put New England on top.

Despite England being up, Argentina controlled the possession but had had trouble squeezing the ball into tight coverage. Each time it looked like Argentina could place a shot, it was shut down by England. For the last 15 minutes of the game, Argentina brought all of their attackers in and put so much pressure on England's defense. After four on goals shots, Enzo Fernandez scored on assist from Messi to knot the game at 1-1 apiece. Argentina put the final touches on the game as Lautaro Martinez scored off another Messi assist to take the lead and won the game off of that goal. What a finish!!!!

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