Julian Alvarez, Lautaro Martinez show it's more than just Lionel Messi for Argentina

KANSAS CITY — Lionel Andres Messi is two games from football immortality; from undisputed, unassailable G.O.A.T. status; from removing any doubt or rebuttal over who’s the best to ever do it.

MORE — Argentina 3-1 Switzerland

Same goes for Argentina, on all points, from a team perspective. Only two teams have ever done it — win the World Cup back-to-back — and the last time was 64 years ago. Italy in the ’30s and Brazil in ’58 and ’64. They’d be the best ever, forever.

And those are the impossible expectations they face — that he faces — every time they take the field, just like they did Saturday night against Switzerland in the 2026 quarterfinals. In the end, they did what was required and they live to play another game, but Argentina are currently underdogs against England in the second semifinal on Wednesday (3 pm ET).

The defending champions. With the greatest player ever. Underdogs.

Maybe they do it, maybe they don’t, but we’ll certainly never see anyone get this close again in our lifetimes.

“May our fans enjoy the semifinal just like us,” Messi said after Argentina survived another scare and won 3-1 in extra-time. “This team has gotten people used to it by doing extraordinary things. We need to savor it to the fullest, because we don’t know if it will happen again.”

Wise words, Leo.

Up until tonight, it had been him dragging Argentina through games that were far closer than they ever should have been. Messi’s magic will have you believing that impossible is nothing for him, but the eye test tells us Argentina are flat out not the best team at this tournament; at no point in the knockout rounds have they looked head or shoulders above the opposition; and it’s more than fair to say they’re still overly reliant on a 39-year-old who has somehow to this point managed to defy time as we know it. It’s not exactly a winning formula to inspire confidence, on paper.

And still, you’re not betting against them. You want to end up on the wrong side of history? Against that guy? That team? Not a chance.

They just find a way. Again and again, and again now.

Only this time, it was more like Argentina dragging Messi over the line when he wasn’t at his typically dominant, most very best. Anything short of Messi’s best, and Argentina would have been out to either one of Cape Verde or Egypt in the last two rounds. It was the question — will someone other than Messi step up? — coming into this World Cup, and five games into it we were no closer to an answer.

Perhaps Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez, Messi’s running mates up top, heard the chatter. How could they not? Well, they answered.

Switzerland made it abundantly clear from the opening whistle that they were not going to let Messi beat them. They crowded him with and without the ball and forced him out wider than he wanted to be. Murat Yakin’s side executed their game plan to near perfection and they got to within eight minutes of a penalty shootout.

If Messi wasn’t going to beat them, then who would? We waited 90 minutes plus two-thirds of extra-time waiting, wondering if we’d find out tonight, or maybe never.

Messi was just standing around, a spectator like the rest of us, when it happened, 112th minute. Alvarez had been given far too much space standing at the corner of the penalty area, and he knew it. He called for it and Jose Manuel Lopez gave it to him, the ball played out in front for Alvarez to run on to and look for goal. One touch cushioned, next touch a wave of the wand. About as top corner as you can put it, over Gregor Kobel’s outstretched mitts and tucked just under the crossbar, side netting for good measure.

Swiss players fell to their knees in equal parts exhaustion and frustration, for they had been playing with 10 men for 40 minutes after Breel Embolo was sent off for a second yellow (diving) in the 72nd. Embolo had been grappling with Lisandro Martinez and Cristian Romero all night, giving them fits and getting one or two right back, and his hold-up play was giving Switzerland lots of good looks on counter-attacks. Romero and Martinez were warriors at the back and drove the team forward at every opportunity.

“There’s always a lot of talk,” Alvarez said after scoring the winner. “I think we have to focus our energy on our own things. The group is very united, very strong. Now it’s time to rest and think about the next one. We’d prefer to win games earlier, but we know it’s not easy. There are two more left, and we’re going to go for them with everything.”

Switzerland played Argentina chance for chance long before Dan Ndoye finally equalized in the 67th, while the champs only managed to beat them with a set piece that was their only real chance of the first half in the 10th minute. These were distressing times for the roughly 68,000 Argentine fans inside Arrowhead Stadium (capacity: 69,045).

“Luck was with us today,” Scaloni admitted afterwards. “We must be realistic, there are things we need to improve.”

It needed to be Alvarez, though, he hadn’t scored or assisted a single goal at this tournament. He’s the one Lionel Scaloni wants to start every game, because he’s the steady hand and doesn’t run so hot and cold but he was poor in two sub appearances and two starts, and only started to look a threat against Egypt last round. Argentina’s chances were few and far between against Switzerland (only nine shots attempted in 90 minutes, followed by 13 in 30 minutes of extra time) and Alvarez only took three all night.

There are only a handful of players in the world that could score that goal going on two hours of football, and we just found out that Argentina has two of them. And that makes them very, very dangerous.

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