ATLANTA — Forty years after Diego Maradona’s infamous Hand of God broke English hearts, Lionel Messi needed only his right foot to do it again.
This time there was no controversy. No debate. Just Messi magic.
Argentina looked finished Wednesday afternoon in the World Cup semifinal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The reigning champs trailed England 1-0 with five minutes left and after all the extraordinary comebacks they had pulled out of their hat this tournament, it appeared for a brief moment as if they had run out of ways to save themselves.
Then, the greatest player the game has ever produced did what he has always done throughout his remarkable career. He bent the match to his will and authored another masterpiece.
First came the equalizer in the 85th minute.
England swarmed Messi with three defenders just outside the penalty area so he calmly slipped a pass to Enzo Fernández in space and the Argentine midfielder unleashed a thunderous strike from distance that flew past Jordan Pickford and into the left side of the net.
The goal not only sent the crowd into a frenzy, it breathed life back into Argentina.
Then, two minutes into stoppage time, Messi glided toward the corner of the box before freezing his defender with a subtle feint to his favored left, then shifting onto his right foot toward the end line. He unleashed a cross that wasn’t just delivered accurately, it was surgical. It fell upon the head of Lautaro Martínez, who sent it into the net to complete Argentina’s breathtaking 2-1 comeback and send La Albiceleste back to the World Cup final.
“We have the best player in the world setting the example for all of us,” Martínez said.
It was another chapter in a tournament increasingly defined by Messi’s late-game sorcery.
“The most dangerous players, when they have the ball in the final third, they can create something and that’s what Lionel [Messi] did today,” said a teary-eyed Harry Kane after the match. “That’s why he’s one of the best players ever. In the end, it was too much for us to stop.”
It was just the latest example of Messi snatching victory for Argentina from the jaws of defeat. He did it against Cape Verde. Sparked the miraculous comeback after trailing Egypt 2-0, and helped produce the decisive moments in extra time against Switzerland.
“I thought Egypt was epic. This was epic squared,” Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni said. “This was historic. I think that we thought nothing could compare [to Egypt], but I know the guys. They fear nothing.”
When England went up 1-0 in the 55th minute, many players on the Argentine bench thought they were witnessing Messi’s final World Cup match. But at 39 years old, he continues to ignore every rule about aging in sports. If Messi does have an expiration date on his greatness, nobody bothered telling him.
“Everything we’ve experienced since the beginning has been incredible,” Messi said in Spanish after the match. “From the moment we stepped onto the pitch and heard the national anthem we felt very special emotions. We knew that this victory wasn’t an ordinary one. This was an important triumph that the Argentine people desired, and we desired it too, because it led us to another World Cup final. We never stopped believing or trying.”
Argentina and England have shared one of football’s fiercest rivalries for generations, fueled by political history, the Falklands War, and Maradona’s unforgettable quarterfinal in Mexico City in 1986. Wednesday offered a different kind of revenge.
Messi’s latest masterpiece reinforced what has become his national team’s defining identity.
It doesn’t panic. It just survives.
Argentina can get outplayed, it can concede goals, it can absorb pressure before unleashing wave after wave at its opponents until they finally crack. England withstood that relentless assault for nearly 40 minutes after Anthony Gordon’s 55th-minute opener, surviving goalposts, desperate clearances and spectacular saves.
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Eventually, even that wasn’t enough.
Now Messi has one last chance to add the perfect ending to the greatest career the sport has ever known.
Back-to-back World Cup champions.
