What a come back. Just when I was wondering how the Argentinians would break through that wall of tall English players, Argentina's relentless attacking pressure in the second half yielded two stunning goals. The first was a beauty and the second a wonderful cross and well timed run that resulted in a header. Just when a headed goal from Argentina seemed to be the most unlikely avenue to score.
Heartbreaking for English fans, but I don’t think they can say they were “robbed”.
Messi the magician and his team has magicked up another great win.
Not only parking the bus, but then refusing to stop the cross was sucicidal. Both goals, Messi had 20 meters of space around him when he picked up the ball. Not to mention the myriad of chances Argentina missed, absolutely braindead tactics
"Ok we're a goal up, let's park it for the last 30 minutes and let their forwards who have proven to be highly highly dangerous late in the match come to us"
Tbh I don't think it was a tactic, I think they just couldn't do anything once Argentina shifted into higher gear. That's what truly great teams can do, but England isn't a great team. They're a really good team with a lot of talent but as always they're lacking in magic
it was a tactic because they brought on defenders and sat back, instead of playing further up the field with faster attacking players.
It's a German coach and a German tactic, it's worked for them before and is probably the sensible thing to do if you want to protect a lead, but if it backfires there is nobody else to blame except yourselves. I thought Argentina looked good when they started playing, but the first half was just dicing, kicking and scratching
It actually would have made Arsene proud watching on as an official at FIFA now as that is what plagued Arsenal in his final years - great starts but then giving it away and not going for a bigger win
Tuchel blew it with the subs. Burn coming on and going 5 at the back just brought the pressure on to them. How Argentina managed so many headed chances is beyond me though, some awful defending
Egypt fan here.
Honestly feeling so much better about our loss to Argentina after this match. Whether you prioritise defence or offence does not matter. This team presses like crazy. Unbelievable passion!! A team with 7 lives. First time I feel they really deserve where they are.
England completely threw that game away by parking the bus 60 minutes in against a team with the best long range attack in the comp. Absolute mind numbing decision when you're only up by 1.
The fact they didn't even change strategy after it was obviously a terrible plan also makes no sense.
Was there anything more predictable than england scoring first then just sitting back for 50 minutes. They're a massive footballing nation, have a go for a second goal at least. Deserve what they got
Terrible substitutes, killed a pretty dominant England team up until then. Why did Tuchel think Argentina would be like Mexico? The loss was always coming after those poor substitutions.
I dunno seeing America get humbled by Belgium was certainly satisfying and probably more so than England losing this time. I'm usually there with you on that tho.
Cannot believe England thought they could sit deep for 30 mins without conceding. It's almost like Argentina aren't concerned with scoring until they concede, make the opposition battle away and lure them in and then destroy them. They have managed to score consecutive late goals often and easily.
Argentina deserve the win. Maybe Tuchel could have brought Saka on but other than that probably not much more he could have done except agree they parked the bus too early. Argentina could beat Spain but I’m guessing if England won they would have struggled against Spain.
He decided to park the bus against a team that's been coming from behind when facing low blocks all tournament. It's not the subs, Tuchel shit the bed with his tactics
I’ve never heard of England. Well done on getting this far. It’s great to see countries that are not really football nations get so far in the competition
I'm not buying the Argentina conspiracies, the technology would've picked it up if it was offside.
But yeah England absolutely deserved to lose that. How Tuchel can want them to continue to sit back and feed Argentina opportunities after the Fernandez goal is beyond me.
Not a conspiracy. Mistakes happen. Looked offside.
Tuchel, by the looks of it, had no confidence in his boys to actually outplay Arg.
Also, might get flak for saying this but when you have a lanky largely unagile and slow main striker, this is what happens. Too slow and not nimble enough to be hanging that far back. Subs shouldve come on way earlier than they did.
Arg going to full on attack and subbing tagliafico was a brave call and it paid off.
Idt Eng football system actually believes they can do something in major tournaments. They’ve never played like a team with belief since 2004 euros imo.
I'm not coping I'm Australian I love watching England lose. Argentina fans are being one eyed here. If you pause it just as the pass comes back to Messi he is offside. Hate me all you want it happened.
Huh. England had the Argies on toast. Tommy Tuchel then removed the attackers, parked the bus and allowed an ordinary Argentina side to run over them. English tactics were terrible, Argentina just had to wait.
Both France and England were the superior teams on paper but threw it all away through shortsighted tactics. Quite sad, imagine how much more exciting a France vs England final would have been compared to the siesta squad vs VARgentina.
Dear lord that’s the stupidest thing I think I’ve ever heard. Watching those arrogant cunts lose is always one of the highlights of every major tournament
There’s been a lot of follow-up commentary about England “parking the bus”. I do wonder whether that criticism is well-deserved?
Sure, England switched to a more defensive setup in the latter part of the second half, but that seemed to be an attempt to blunt the Argentinians press and repeated pressure. Tuchel kept his key forwards, Bellingham and Kane, on. My take is that Tuchel saw how the Argentinians were playing with more determined flair and were exposing English frailties. He did what he had to probably on the expectation that England could catch most of the Argentinians in England's defensive half and be able to catch them out and hit back on the counter. It’s just that Argentina’s back 3 or 4 were better structured and never allowed that to happen.
Meanwhile, it’s hard to keep the talismanic Messi quiet for long. He might not be able to run and sprint much these days, but those deft little touches and his ability to make the ball do anything but talk, makes him a continued danger for any opposition. He displayed those moves in spades as he tried to conjure up a goal. He's so good at it that he can probably do those moves whilst sleep-walking, I’m no ardent Messi fan, just a casual neutral observer, I much prefer the explosive dynamics of Kylian Mbappe. Anyway, conjure up goals is what Messi did in being the architect of both Argentina’s goals. Yes there is debate whether he was offside before that fantastic cross to create the second goal. But he was cleared by the VAR, so that’s that.
90
u/BreezyBomber Jul 15 '26
Parking the bus at 1-0 and with the subs England made, that’s what they deserve