Messi’s Argentina meet Switzerland’s underdogs for a World Cup semi-final place

Argentina reach the World Cup quarter-finals as the team nobody wants to draw and, on paper at least, the side with the most to lose. The reigning champions take on Switzerland in Kansas City, a tie that sets Lionel Messi and a settled, star-heavy team against a Swiss side living out its best World Cup run in more than 70 years. For Indian viewers the game kicks off at 6:30am IST on Sunday.

Getting here was harder than Argentina would have liked. They were 2-0 down to Egypt in the round of 16 and looked to be going out, especially after Messi had a penalty saved. Then the match turned. Cristian Romero headed in from a Messi cross with 11 minutes left, Messi levelled soon after, and Enzo Fernandez nodded home a Lautaro Martinez delivery to complete a 3-2 win deep into stoppage time. It was the kind of escape champions tend to need at least once on the way.

Messi still setting the pace

Messi’s goal against Egypt was his eighth of the tournament, level with Kylian Mbappe at the top of the Golden Boot race, with Erling Haaland one goal back, and it extended a scoring streak that reaches back to Argentina’s 2022 title run. At an age when most players have long since stopped, he is once more the tournament’s defining figure, and Argentina’s path to the final still runs mostly through him. Around him, Lautaro Martinez, Enzo Fernandez and Romero give the side goals and steel from every line.

Switzerland’s run of a lifetime

Switzerland are the surprise of this half of the draw. They ground out a goalless draw with Colombia across 120 minutes in Vancouver, then held their nerve in the shootout to win 4-3, with Ruben Vargas burying the decisive kick and goalkeeper Gregor Kobel making the save that mattered. It carried them into the last eight for the first time in 72 years, a result that means a great deal for a country long used to going out in the last 16.

The worry for Switzerland is fitness. Johan Manzambi, the 20-year-old Freiburg midfielder who lit up the group stage with three goals, has been ruled out with a knee injury picked up in training, and Vargas has been managing a knock of his own. Granit Xhaka, the captain and the man who holds the midfield together, will need to be at his most disciplined against a forward line as sharp as Argentina’s.

On form Argentina are clear favourites, and Switzerland needed penalties to get past Colombia after failing to score in two hours of football. But the Swiss have made a habit of frustrating better teams, and if they can drag the game long and level, the pressure starts to shift. Argentina know it too. A semi-final against the winner of Norway and England is the prize, and Messi does not have many of these mornings left.

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