Welcome to The Full Time Report. Episode seventy-three. Here we go. Argentina are in the World Cup final, and England are out in the most England way imaginable: ahead in a semi-final, within touching distance of a first final since nineteen sixty-six, and then suddenly defending their own penalty area as if the clock itself had become the opponent. Argentina won two-one in Atlanta, and the swing happened late enough to leave everybody staring at the same question: how did a side that had pressed so well for an hour stop being able to keep the ball at all? Anthony Gordon gave England the lead in the fifty-fifth minute. Enzo Fernandez levelled in the eighty-fifth. Lautaro Martinez, off the bench, headed the winner in the ninety-second. Both Argentina goals involved Lionel Messi, who did not score but was named FIFA's player of the match. That is the whole night in one little bundle: England had the moment, Argentina had the last word, and Messi was still there when the game needed somebody to make sense of the chaos. We will go through the match, the tactical argument, Thomas Tuchel and Harry Kane's reaction, what England do with a third-place game against France, then look ahead to Spain against Argentina in Sunday's final. And there is a small but useful transfer desk at the end, because Sunderland have made a World Cup-hardened signing and Arsenal have lost a very familiar forward.
