10-men Swiss bank collapses before Alvarez magic

They left it late again, but Argentina emerged victorious 3-1 in a hard-fought match against Switzerland to book their place in the Final Four of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. While the 3-1 scoreline might fool those who didn’t watch the game into thinking it was a rout, the reality is that it was anything but that.

Despite taking the lead early in the first half, Argentina struggled over the rest of regulation time to control the game, which allowed Switzerland to find an equaliser through Dan Ndoye in the second half.

Switzerland’s hopes at an upset took a tumble when Breel Embolo was shown a second yellow in the 72nd minute and they were reduced to ten men but the Swiss defence held out till the end of 90 minutes to force extra time. Unfortunately, when you’re down a man and facing the world champions, a goal is almost inevitable and it was a wonder strike from Julian Alvarez in the 112th minute that finally sank the Swiss.

Shortly after, Lautaro Martinez hammered home a third to secure Switzerland’s exit and a place in the semifinals for Argentina.

In a manner of speaking, Switzerland suffered from being a ‘man down’ even before kickoff as their standout player of the tournament Johan Manzambi was ruled out of the game. Manzambi, who had three goals and two assists in the tournament so far, had picked up an injury during training that left him unavailable for the Colombia match. As his situation hadn’t improved before this game, Murat Yakin moved winger Fabian Rieder to Manzambi’s position as an attacking midfielder and Djibril Sow to take Rieder’s position.

It was a tough loss for the Swiss before a ball was even kicked and the absence of the midfielder could be felt in the team’s lack of creativity in the final third.

Argentina, who lined up for the match relatively unchanged, couldn’t have asked for a better start to the game. In the 10th minute a corner conceded by the Swiss saw Lionel Messi swinging the ball into the box and MacAllister rising above the taller Swiss defenders to head home the game’s opener.

It was a brilliant bit of movement from MacAllister that allowed him to win the header, as he perfectly timed his steps to get in front of Embolo just at the moment that Messi struck the corner. With his corner, Messi extended his newly established record by becoming the first player to notch 10 assists in the history of the tournament.

However, following their opener, it just seemed like Argentina shrunk into a passive formation that allowed Switzerland to regain their composure after the early shock. Scaloni’s men were content to just sit back and ward off the Swiss attacks, while simply punting long balls every once in a while. It was a puzzling decision, because if you take the lead so early in a knockout game it gives you the edge to put your foot on the neck of the opposition and kill their momentum early.

Due to the passivity of the Argentine offence, Switzerland slowly started controlling the tempo of the game and had the majority of possession, but they just seemed unable to really create a scare in the opposition box. One explanation could be the Manzambi-shaped hole in their attack, as the young talent had a keen eye for finding space behind the backline.

The majority of the game was played in the midfield with neither team really imposing themselves on the other’s defence, apart from MacAllister’s goal. A lot of build-up plays, from both teams, just seemed to lead to nothing on the pitch. This lacklustre affair was finally broken up in the 67th minute through an excellent play by Dan Ndoye.

Receiving the ball on the left wing, Ndoye cut past one Argentinian defender, played it off Ricardo Rodriguez to move past another two before finding the space to strike the ball into the far corner past Emiliano Martinez. It was exactly the kind of individual brilliance that Switzerland needed to break the Argentinian wall, and it should have been the jumping off point for the Swiss to carry on their momentum.

But just as Switzerland saw the light at the end of the tunnel, it all came crashing down within a minute. In a routine bit of play, Breel Embolo seemed to go down due to a tackle by Leandro Paredes, and the defender was shown a yellow. However, after an appeal for the card and a check-in from VAR, onfield referee Joao Pinheiro trotted off to check the screen for a case of ‘mistaken identity’.

It’s a rare situation that arises when the wrong player is carded and the assistant referees feel that there is enough evidence to warrant a second check by the onfield referee. On a second look, it became clear to Pinheiro that Embolo wasn’t fouled and had instead simulated a dive, and in a shock to Switzerland, he reversed his original decision and instead handed out a yellow to Embolo for simulation.

The striker, who had picked up a yellow earlier for a foul on Paredes, saw red and was forced to leave the pitch in tears and the game that had seemed within grasp for the Swiss seemed to be slipping away again.

From the moment that Embolo left the pitch, the Argentinian attack found a renewed sense of purpose and intensity. It was clear that La Albiceleste wanted to finish the game before extra time, but try as they might, they just couldn’t find a hole in the Swiss wall before the end of regulation time. They also seemed to find no luck deep into extra time as every shot was blocked and cleared by a Swiss defender.

Just as the likelihood of penalties seemed inevitable, Argentina found their saviour in Julian Alvarez. In a build-up that began a few minutes before the eventual goal, the ball pinged in and around the Swiss box for a while with no defender able to get a clean interception or clearance.

Argentina seemed to run out of ideas when the ball finally ended up at the feet of Alvarez, who was just outside the left-hand side of the box. A few touches towards the centre and he doesn’t even look up before unleashing a curler that perfectly nestled into the back of the net. There was nothing that could have been done by a Swiss defender or by the goalkeeper Kobel, because it was one of those goals that will go down in World Cup history. The power, the arc, the timing, Alvarez couldn’t have hit it better in any shape or form, and it sealed the fate of the game.

Despite around 10 minutes still remaining in the game, it was clear to see from the Swiss expressions that they had given all they could and were clearly hoping to take the game to penalties. All-out attack was their only option, and it would mean sacrificing their defensive formation and exposing themselves to further goals, and that’s exactly what happened.

In the penultimate stretch of the game, an unfortunate ball slippage from Kobel saw Lautaro Martinez slot the ball into an empty net and destroy the final shred of hope for all those in red. It was a valiant effort from Switzerland, especially after the red card, but there was always that sense of inevitability to the Argentine victory after the 72nd minute.

Argentina’s qualification meant that the four teams ranked #1-4 on the official FIFA rankings will be the semi-finalists of a World Cup for the first time in the history of the tournament. La Albiceleste have booked themselves a historic rematch of the 1986 quarter-finals against England in the final four.

A tense rivalry exists between the nations that spill over from real-world politics (the Falkland wars) and from the ghost of Maradona that still haunts the English 40 years later. The two teams will face off in Atlanta on July 15.