Key events

3h ago Preamble

We have received an email! Krishna Moorthy writes: Good morning Will. Feeling a bit tired after the late finish. Here are a few comments to pass the time until the next 60 hours (luckily Wimbledon is on tonight).

1. Norway suffered due to missed chances. They ought to have sealed the game before the break. 2. Embolo acted foolishly. All the rest is just distraction. My auto-correct turns Embolo into emboldened which fits quite well. 3. Tuchel is straightforward in his views and the confident Bellingham response hints at what lies ahead in the semis. I would not be shocked if Tuchel drops him. 4. With Brazil out I have no favorites left but would like to see Spain the next strongest side lift the trophy though I cannot imagine anyone overcoming the French. 5. The perfect ending to this GWC would come if Mbappe declines to accept the trophy from Trump. Do that and I will support France forever.

Any Argentinian readers still up? Are the parties still going? From the images arriving it has been quite an evening.

World Cup Daily has arrived with Max Rushden alongside Barry Glendenning John Brewin Lars Sivertsen and Leander Schaerlackens to review all the drama from last night. Switch on tune in switch off.

Switzerland keep expressing anger over the mistaken identity rule that led to Breel Embolo being dismissed for simulation last night after Leandro Paredes had first been cautioned for fouling the striker. Murat Yakin the Switzerland coach finds himself arguing that Paredes should not have been booked at all because without the yellow VAR could not have stepped in to remove it and punish Embolo instead. There was clearly no basis for that yellow card to Paredes I do not get it Yakin said. It was a minor incident. I do not see why the call was taken and our player was sent off.

This rule ruined our match today. I find it very damaging. We will not reach the semifinals but I believe we earned a place there. Going out in this manner stings deeply yet I can say we feel proud of our showing in the competition.

Pablo Iglesias Maurer attended Kansas City Stadium to see Argentina win and shares his views which you can find here.

Good morning BST! Was there a football game last night? You might not guess from the trail of crushed cans odd spills on the ground and the odd lost fan in an England shirt looking dazed and weary still roaming the streets during my journey in.

Of course there was more than one game with Argentina defeating Switzerland 3-1 after extra time to arrange a thrilling semifinal against Thomas Tuchel's determined side. Let us begin with the reaction from Lionel Scaloni Argentina's coach who has stressed it will be a football contest as he targets a rare double of a World Cup and a World Stating The Obvious award.

Jonathan Howcroft

That concludes my stint for now. Will Magee takes over to keep you informed for the next period.

There will be extensive coverage of the 1986 quarterfinal in the days ahead. Seize every chance to relive Bryon Butler's commentary of Diego Maradona's solo goal that decided England's fate at the Azteca.

I am sure IFAB has good intentions but if they could restore things to the state around 1998 and then all step aside that would be excellent thanks.

England's prize for beating Norway is a semifinal meeting with Argentina. Yes England against Argentina in a World Cup knockout fixture in North America. What could possibly go wrong?

The holders have not been at their peak in the knockout rounds and needed the luck of a VAR decision to dismiss Switzerland's Breel Embolo and give them the advantage in the Kansas heat.

Fifa match officials novel application of the mistaken identity term surfaced again in dramatic fashion during Saturday's World Cup quarterfinal between Argentina and Switzerland leaving Swiss forward Breel Embolo in tears and the European team a man short for 67 minutes against the defending champions.
It is completely not understandable Switzerland head coach Murat Yakin said afterward. I know that they will protect their referee but this rule destroyed the game today.

Norway exit the World Cup with pride intact. The final dark horse won over neutral fans with their on-pitch attitude and off-pitch Viking Row. It surely will not be another 28-year gap between finals.

As expected the heat and humidity in Miami affected the Landslaget with even HyperbotGoalMachine3000 Erling Haaland having to be replaced before the end.

To paraphrase Chico Marx to Mrs Teasdale in Duck Soup who are you going to believe? Me or your own eyes? Ronnie I wish all my emails started like this.

Given Fifa's assertion that the ball's heartbeat showed no change when the Norwegian keeper's clearance first struck the Spidercam wires should Croatia be even more worried about their late equalizer against Portugal being disallowed when we saw no change but the heartbeat registered a tiny touch? How can we rely on Fifa technology?

Indeed. Though I think the word technology at the end of that sentence may be unnecessary. Jonathan Wilson wrote on this subject just hours ago.

Previously the rant from the Egypt manager Hossam Hassan about the need to keep Messi in the tournament could have been dismissed as the bitter words of a disappointed man but then you recall Fifa adjusted the qualifying process for the Club World Cup to ensure the presence of Inter Miami and Messi and that Fifa reduced two games of Cristiano Ronaldo's three-game ban for his red card against Ireland in qualifying so he could play in every group-stage game and then had to declare an amnesty for three other suspended players.
Fifa likes famous players to be involved. What if entertainment concerns the grubby desire for growth have come to replace sporting concerns?
This is the fire with which Infantino is playing. Sport only means something when it is believable: football without faith is nothing. Marketing can never take priority over sporting concerns. When the perception of integrity has gone the doubt lingers as it did for Romanians around the turn of the millennium. And if the doubts linger too long the sport is dead.

Sidebar Whatever bears such a striking resemblance to Neil Innes I'm Free to be an Idiot that the former Monty Python collaborator received a songwriting credit and a share of the royalties in an out-of-court settlement.

Wonderwall might be the England team's Oasis song of choice but surely they switch it to this more fitting and far better in my view track.

Gabriel Clarke was the reporter tasked with getting postmatch quotes from Tuchel and Bellingham in the flash zone and he performed admirably.

Tuchel became wide-eyed and animated like Spud during his job interview in Trainspotting.

Bellingham meanwhile gave the impression he did not care much for any implied criticism from the German about the team's performance.

asked to respond to that criticism Bellingham was clearly not impressed. Yeah well whatever. Whatever he said his body language also telling. It is difficult out there. It is a tough shift. All the players have put in a tough shift so my thoughts and appreciation goes to the players who were out there and put in a great shift yet again.
Pressed further in another post-match interview Bellingham said: Maybe he does not know what it is like to play in those kind of conditions against Erling Haaland Martin Odegaard Antonio Nusa Alexander Sorloth. That is not an easy team to play against. So I think we have tried to create a positive environment. You are not going to win every game popping the ball and making a thousand passes. Sometimes you have to win dirty and we have done that again tonight.

At the risk of being the 1,000th to say it it is the Cable of God jokes George Peacock.

Get those gags in now folks because there will be enough of God references over the coming days to last a lifetime.

Norway were unhappy that England's opening goal was allowed to stand after the ball appeared to strike a cable attached to one of the overhead TV cameras allowing Elliot Anderson to accept possession unopposed and feed assist-maker Anthony Gordon.

I can sit here and cry but I do not want to do that remarked Stale Solbakken. We have done everything we could the players have been phenomenal throughout the tournament. OK it was bizarre but it is part of football and why it is the best sport in the world because things like that can happen. We have to accept it.

Fifa released a statement saying a sensor in the ball showed no evidence it had touched a cable.

Our own Ed Aarons rated Noni Madueke as England's poorest performer. On US TV Zlatan Ibrahimovic kept the internet furnace stoked with a half-time rant that suggested England were effectively playing with 10 men.

Thomas Tuchel has clearly done extremely well to reach the semifinals of the World Cup but the number of unused and underperforming members of his squad will make for interesting historical analysis.

There were some handy cameos elsewhere though with Djed Spence making an impact at left back Morgan Rogers adding much needed energy and Dan Burn reminding everyone that even in the modern passing and possession era it is perfectly fine to stick on a big fella when you are defending a lead and enjoy watching him head crosses away.

Barney touches on the bewildering omission of Kobbie Mainoo. The Manchester United midfielder has played no part in England's campaign so far despite being a reasonable option off the bench in his team's first five matches and the blindingly obvious one in their sixth.

Tuchel went to absurd lengths to avoid playing him against Norway instead starting a desiccated Declan Rice replacing him with Eberechi Eze in an advanced role that destabilised the entire structure followed by a half-fit right fullback Reece James as he played whack-a-mole to problems of his own making.

Across those 120 minutes the central midfield duo went from Declan Rice and Anderson to Bellingham and Anderson to Reece James and Anderson to Morgan Rogers and Anderson. Not Kobbie Mainoo notably who is presumably behind David Beckham a cone a giant lizard and the TV camera cable in the running for a spot. Why is Mainoo here? Why is Adam Wharton not here? These are questions deserving of a genuine answer.

Barney Ronay was in Miami to witness the latest instalment of the Jude Bellingham force of will tour. Beneath the deserved adulation for England's two-goal hero there is no shortage of concern for a team that has lost its spark and a coach that no longer seems to know his best XI.

At times this felt like the familiar England parade of we are the hollow men stuffed men waiting for the game to happen to them football as a slow suffocation in that thick sweet air. But they also had Jude Bellingham who seems increasingly to exist as an entirely different category of human in this team out there playing a parallel tournament one that has to this point swept the rest of them along in its wake.

Preamble

Jonathan Howcroft

Whether you are just catching your breath after an epic double header or waking up to the news of a pair of thrilling quarterfinals stick with us here for all the news and reaction from a gripping 2026 World Cup.

Just four teams remain alive in the draw with England and Argentina joining France and Spain in the semis. For the first time since Fifa's rankings began in 1992 the World Cup semifinalists are the top four sides in the world on paper.

England were made to toil in the Miami heat by Norway but not for the first time Jude Bellingham delivered when it mattered on the big stage.

Argentina also required extra time to battle past European opposition their hero was