Thomas Tuchel made a choice. And that choice, according to Thierry Henry, is why England is headed to a third-place match instead of a World Cup final.
Argentina pulled off another one of those comebacks they’ve made into a signature move this tournament. Down 1-0 after Anthony Gordon’s 55th-minute goal, the defending champs flipped the script in the final minutes. Enzo Fernandez equalized from distance in the 85th. Then Lautaro Martinez nodded home the winner two minutes into stoppage time. Lionel Messi assisted both. The final score: Argentina 2, England 1.
Henry didn’t hold back during FOX Sports’ postgame coverage. When host Rebecca Lowe asked him to make sense of the result, he kept it simple.
“The best team won,” he said.
But he also got into the tactical side. England went up early and then backed off. Way off. They dropped deep and tried to protect the lead with more than a half-hour still to play.
“Thomas Tuchel, what he did wasn’t bad,” Henry said. “They just did it too early.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, sitting on the same panel, put it even more bluntly: “England stopped playing.”
And that gave Messi and company the opening they needed. Argentina took control of possession, built pressure, and started rattling Jordan Pickford. Alexis Mac Allister hit the post in the 76th minute. That was the warning shot. The goals came soon after.
The numbers tell a clear story too. England managed six total shots, two on target. Argentina piled up 14 attempts. The possession stats tilted hard toward the South Americans in the second half. It wasn’t like England got unlucky. They got outplayed.
For Argentina, this follows a tournament-long pattern. They needed extra time to get past the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. They’ve made a habit of late-game heroics. Critics could call it luck, but at some point it’s a skill — finding a way when things look dark.
What this means for both sides
England now faces France in Saturday’s third-place game. That’s not where anyone expected them to end up after the group stage. For a program still chasing its first World Cup since 1966, this one’s going to sting for a while.
Argentina moves on to face Spain in the final. That’s a rematch of the 2022 group stage, where Argentina won 3-0 — but Spain is a different team now. The defending champs are one win away from back-to-back titles, which would put them in rare company.
Messi, as usual, was the difference maker. Two assists in the closing minutes. Even at this stage of his career, he still bends games to his will when it matters most. Henry, a World Cup winner himself, didn’t need to say much else after that.
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