Day 32: Álvarez's Golazo Sinks 10-Man Switzerland — and the Final Four Is Set

Day 32 was a one-match day that somehow decided everything. Argentina and Switzerland kicked off on Saturday night in Kansas City, but by the time Lautaro Martínez rolled in the last of the goals it was already past 3am in UTC — which is why the fourth and final quarter-final lands on July 12 in the schedule. Win it and the reigning champions would complete a last four that reads like a seeding sheet. They won it. Just barely, and only after the game had turned on a call nobody in the stadium fully understood in real time.

For 111 minutes this looked like the upset the tournament had been flirting with. Then, as they have all summer, Argentina found a way.

Argentina 3–1 Switzerland (aet): escapology, one more time

Follow the full ticker on the match page, but the shape of it was simple. Argentina struck early, Switzerland struck back, and the tie was still level at 1-1 when extra time arrived.

The opener was almost a formality. Ten minutes in, Lionel Messi curled in a corner and Alexis Mac Allister, the shortest man in the box, climbed above Djibril Sow to head it home. It was Argentina’s third straight game scoring from a Messi corner, as The Independent noted, and — per FIFA — the first time Switzerland had trailed in 17 hours and 10 minutes of qualifying and finals football. So much for the fortress.

Because a fortress is exactly what Murat Yakin’s side had been. They had conceded just three goals in five matches coming in, and for an hour they smothered the world champions, kept Messi at arm’s length and slowly took the game over. On 67 minutes it paid off: Dan Ndoye exchanged passes with captain Ricardo Rodríguez and slid a finish under Emiliano Martínez from a tight angle. Deserved, and, for five glorious minutes, season-defining.

The 72nd-minute twist that changed everything

Then came the moment Swiss fans will replay for years. Referee João Pinheiro booked Leandro Paredes for a foul on Breel Embolo near halfway — but the video assistant intervened under the tournament’s new mistaken-identity protocol (one of the new rules in force this summer), and the replay showed Embolo had gone down without contact. The caution was wiped from Paredes and handed to Embolo for simulation. As he’d already been booked in the 44th minute — for fouling that same Paredes — it was a second yellow, and he was gone.

Embolo left in tears. According to Reuters, Yakin had been in the act of readying an attacking substitution as his side surged; instead he was down to ten with 18 minutes plus extra time to survive. “It was just a disaster,” Remo Freuler told AP of the dismissal. The numbers spelled out the swing: ESPN clocked Switzerland’s possession at 54% before the red card and Argentina’s at 76% after it, with the Albiceleste racking up 17 shots to 2 across the final phase.

It was a rare piece of history, too. As beIN Sports and Reuters reported, Embolo became the first player in two decades to be sent off at a World Cup for a simulation-related second yellow — the last was Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan against Brazil in 2006.

Messi quietened — so someone else obliged

The strange part: even a man to the good, Argentina couldn’t break through in normal time. Switzerland parked the bus, Gregor Kobel stood tall, and Messi — who finished with an assist but no goal, ending a scoring run that had stretched nine World Cup matches (The Independent) — kept curling efforts just wide. His eight goals still leave him tied with Kylian Mbappé at the top of the Golden Boot race, but this was, by his standards, a quiet night.

Cue Julián Álvarez. Goalless in the tournament until this point, the striker collected a lay-off from substitute José Manuel López on the edge of the box in the 112th minute and bent a 24-yard shot into Kobel’s top corner — a golazo worthy of any last four. Nine minutes later Thiago Almada rattled a shot that Kobel could only parry, and Lautaro Martínez was there to bundle in the rebound at 120+1 for 3-1.

The underlying numbers had long favoured Argentina — 22 shots to 11, 59% of the ball, an expected-goals edge of 1.96 to 0.53 — but the scoreline needed two moments of extra-time quality to match them. Coach Lionel Scaloni, for one, stayed honest about it. “The truth is that luck was on our side today, because they had a player sent off and that’s when our team started attacking. We have to be realistic,” he told reporters (Reuters). Defender Lisandro Martínez, whose back line has now shipped five goals in three knockout games, was blunter still to ESPN: “We definitely need to be a little more focused… it’s better that it happens now.”

Switzerland out with their heads high

For all the heartbreak, this was Switzerland’s best World Cup in a lifetime — their first quarter-final since 1954, and they exit having conceded just six goals in six games — only four with eleven on the pitch, as ESPN noted. They did it, as they have all tournament, without injured forward Johan Manzambi. And they extended a miserable head-to-head record against Argentina: no wins in eight meetings, per AP, the last a 1-0 Argentine extra-time win in the 2014 round of 16 courtesy of Ángel Di María.

Argentina, meanwhile, keep living dangerously. This was their 13th World Cup match to go to extra time — more than any other nation, beIN Sports noted — and their third straight knockout to run long, after edging Cape Verde and clawing back from 2-0 down against Egypt. They’ve scored exactly three goals in each of those three wins. Escapology has become a system.

What’s next: a semi-final field for the ages

For the first time in World Cup history, the four teams that entered as the top four in FIFA’s rankings have all reached the semi-finals — France, Argentina, Spain and England (ESPN). Al Jazeera framed it another way: four former champions in the last four for the first time since 1990. However you slice it, the bracket has produced heavyweights only, and every side topped its group to get here.

Tuesday, July 14 brings France vs Spain in Arlington — the top two ranked sides in the world, meeting again two years on from their Euro semi-final. Wednesday, July 15 brings the one Argentina fans circled the moment the whistle blew: England, in Atlanta, with all the history that fixture drags along (a rivalry ESPN traced back through 1986 and beyond). There was a poignant footnote, too — The Independent noted that Antonio Rattín, sent off for Argentina against England at Wembley in 1966, had died earlier that very day.

Win that, and a final against France — a possible rematch of 2022 — or Spain awaits at MetLife Stadium on July 19. Keep an eye on the live scores at whatsthescore.football — from here, there are no small days left.

Argentina 3–1 Switzerland (aet): escapology, one more time

The 72nd-minute twist that changed everything

Messi quietened — so someone else obliged

Switzerland out with their heads high

What’s next: a semi-final field for the ages

Sources