Lionel Messi will face England for the first time in his international career when Argentina meet the Three Lions in the World Cup semi-final at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Wednesday. The encounter, set in motion by Argentina’s 3-1 quarter-final victory over Switzerland and England’s 2-1 extra-time win against Norway, ends a peculiar two-decade gap in the 39-year-old’s record. Messi, who has amassed more than 200 caps and 21 World Cup goals, has played against every other major football nation except England.

The roots of the absence trace back to August 2005, when an 18-year-old Messi made his senior Argentina debut as a substitute against Hungary in Budapest. He was sent off after 47 seconds for an elbow, a dismissal that triggered a suspension and ruled him out of a friendly against England in Geneva three months later. That match, won 3-2 by England, remains the last meeting between the two sides. In the years that followed, as Messi’s stature grew, Argentine football officials reportedly demanded appearance fees of between £3 million and £4 million for friendlies featuring the forward, a figure that, combined with the logistical cost of transatlantic travel, deterred the English Football Association from arranging another fixture.

Viewed from Buenos Aires, the semi-final carries echoes of the 1986 quarter-final in Mexico City, where Diego Maradona scored the ‘Hand of God’ goal and a solo masterpiece to eliminate England. Messi, who emulated Maradona by leading Argentina to the title in Qatar four years ago, now has the opportunity to leave his own mark on the rivalry. He enters the match as the tournament’s all-time leading scorer with 21 goals, one ahead of France’s Kylian Mbappé, and had scored in nine consecutive World Cup appearances before the Switzerland game, where he ceded the scoring duties to Julián Álvarez.

Analysts in London note that England, appearing in their fourth major semi-final since 2018, view the match as a chance to reach a first World Cup final since 1966. Left-back Nico O’Reilly, likely to mark Messi, described the occasion as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” and called the Argentine “the best player to ever touch a football pitch”. Argentina, the defending champions, are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy since Brazil in 1962 and to reach a third final in four tournaments.

The winner will advance to face either Spain or France in the final. For Messi, victory would mean a third World Cup final appearance, matching the feat of Brazil’s Cafu, who played in three consecutive finals from 1994 to 2002.