ATLANTA — Argentina, the death-defying defending World Cup champion, will play for a second consecutive title after scoring two late goals to beat England in the semifinal, 2-1.

For a fourth straight knockout game, Argentina survived a heart-stoppingly close call. First was Cape Verde, the African island nation underdog, who took the champions to extra time. Then was the furious miracle comeback after Egypt took a 2-0 lead. Then, in the quarterfinal, a shorthanded Switzerland squad forced extra time despite a 72nd-minute red card.

This gutsy Argentina squad prevailed in all three games, and Wednesday, they pulled it off yet again. In the 55th minute, England took a 1-0 lead when forward Anthony Gordon tapped in a cross.

But, as the clock ticked up, Argentina turned up the intensity. A relentless onslaught yielded near miss after near miss before finally midfielder Enzo Fernández scored off a rocket from outside the penalty area to equalize the game at 1-1 in the 85th minute.

Then, in stoppage time, forward Lautaro Martínez sent the Argentina crowd into delirium with a header off a cross from 39-year-old superstar Lionel Messi, who assisted on both goals.

"I think that this team plays the best when we are facing a difficult situation, with adversity, " said Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni afterward. "We had a challenging game, a challenging situation. There was blood in the water, and we went for it."

In Sunday's final they will face Spain, which defeated France on Tuesday 2-0 to contend for their second-ever title.

Wednesday's game, the sixth meeting between these two teams at the men's World Cup, was the newest chapter in their storied rivalry. That history includes the infamous "Hand of God" goal scored by Diego Maradona in the 1986 World Cup, four years after a war between the two countries over the Falkland Islands. The British won the war, but the sovereignty of the territory is still under dispute.

(Asked Tuesday about the "Hand of God," which was the first of two goals scored by Maradona, coach Scaloni slyly deflected. "I think all of the world remembers that game, remembers Diego's performance, remembers above all the second goal," he said.)

To hear England's coach, none of that mattered on Wednesday. "We respect our opponent, but we don't dip in historic events, and we don't make it bigger than it is," Thomas Tuchel told reporters the day before the match.

Yet from the opening kick, both teams eagerly played a physical game: Collisions, jersey tugs, tough tackles, bodies flying to the ground. Referee Ismail Elfath, the first American man to work a World Cup semifinal, awarded a yellow card to each team before halftime.

And after the game, as Argentina's players celebrated on the field, midfielder Giovani Lo Celso, who did not play in the match, unfurled a white banner bearing the words "Las Malvinas son Argentinas," or "the Malvinas are Argentine," a reference to the Argentine name for the Falkland Islands. The banner appeared to have been first held by Argentina fans in the stands.

For England fans, the pain is a familiar one as they watched the team fall short in yet another major tournament knockout game. England lost in the Euros final in both 2024 and 2020, and the last time they reached the World Cup semifinal in 2018, they lost by the same score as Wednesday's match, 2-1, despite scoring first.

"It's a similar story to what's happened in previous tournaments," England Captain Harry Kane conceded afterward. "We'd done so well for that 60 minutes. We scored. We deserved to be ahead. And then, for one reason or another, we struggled to keep the ball. We struggled to put pressure on the ball and it just allowed them to create more momentum."

The atmosphere inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta was raucous and ear-splitting. Argentine fans by the thousands wore the white and sky blue striped jerseys bearing the name of their star Messi. The English celebrated their team wearing all-white or all-red jerseys of their scoring sensations: Kane and Jude Bellingham.

But neither star could save England from another defeat, extending what has already been an agonizing 60-year wait to return to the final.

NPR's Russell Lewis contributed reporting from Atlanta

Tagged: Jude Bellingham

Argentina is back in the World Cup final after a thrilling semifinal win over England