World Cup 2026 : England to face Argentina in tense semi-final • FRANCE 24 English

Well, it's time now for our daily roundup of all the latest from the World Cup, and I'm joined by Emily Boyle. Emily, we have two quarterfinals to go through. Let's start with England.

Yes, England threw to the semifinals after their game against Norway. They won 2-1 against the Norwegian Vikings, and it was a tense game played in extreme heat and humidity. The Norwegian Vikings opened proceedings and went ahead after 36 minutes as Andreas Scheldrup whacked in a cross-turned-top-bin stunner, which fooled Jordan Pickford.

England needed to get back into the game, and it was Jude Bellingham who came to the rescue in first-half stoppage time when he was fed a beautiful pass by Anthony Gordon and beat the Norwegian keeper Orjan Nyland. At halftime, Thomas Tuchel made some big changes, benching Declan Rice and Noni Medueke and bringing on Eze and Saka. Norway was still pretty threatening, though.

After the break, they saw one goal be disallowed and came close a few more times, hitting the post. The game went to extra time, and once again, Jude Bellingham stepped up to the occasion, capitalising on a fumble by the Norwegian goalkeeper to find the back of the net a second time. France 24's own Serena Sykes was actually in the stadium in Miami to witness that set of performance.

Here's what she had to say. England are through to the semi-finals of the World Cup, thanks to who else than Jude Bellingham, a brilliant individual performance from the Real Madrid. A man to send England through after they beat Norway 2-1 in extra time.

He was quite rightly serenaded by England fans at the end of the match. It was a tough and tight one in a hot and humid Miami that actually saw a Norway open the scoring, thanks to Sheldrup, in the 36th minute. It looked like a cross that dipped in and got the better of Jordan Pickford, but it didn't take long for England to respond, thanks to Jude Bellingham, on the stroke of half a time as he took Gordon's pass perfectly to send an excellent shot into the back of the net.

It was a tense second half with no team wanting to concede a goal and the deadlock wasn't broken in 90 minutes. And then it was Jude Bellingham who stepped things up a gear in just the third minute of extra time as he pounced after the Norwegian goalkeeper saved an effort by Morgan Rodgers. As England are, what, just one win away now from their first men's World Cup final since 1966.

And Norway, meanwhile, can go home with their heads held high. They were labelled as the Dark Horses heading into this tournament and they now head home after their best ever World Cup campaign. Yeah, well, despite Bellingham's stellar performance that you heard about there, head coach Thomas Tuchel was not entirely convinced with England's game.

And his comments actually sparked some disagreement among the English ranks and a response from Bellingham himself. Take a listen to what they both had to say. The head of mine is not fully satisfied and is not 100% happy with the way we played and I stand by it.

I think we can play faster. I think we can play more clinical. We have too many unforced errors in technical mistakes in our game that cost us a lot of belief.

Well, maybe he doesn't know what it's like to play in those kind of conditions against Erling Haaland, Odegaard, Neusser, Soloth. You know, that's not an easy team to play against. So you're not going to win every game popping the ball and making a thousand passes.

Sometimes you have to win dirty and we've done that again tonight. Yeah, well, the coach and players might not completely be seeing eye to eye, but the English fans are all on the same wavelength. Let's have a look at the English celebrations after the final whistle in London.

We were awful, but we're so lucky it was coming home. Jude could be the sexiest man on planet Earth. Jude is the future.

Jude's the future. He's the future, man. Happy fans there and much love to Jude.

Now, that does mean, unfortunately, we have to say goodbye to Norway. Yes, sadly, the Norwegian team, they've become so popular over the course of this World Cup, but they will be sailing home after that loss, despite their brilliant performance at this World Cup. Fans also gathered in Oslo for one last row as they looked back on their historic World Cup performance.

As a team, they have written history. Either way, if they lost or if they would have won. It's a great thing as a nation.

I didn't expect that we would come as far as we've come. So much football and it has united the nation. So grateful for the games that we have won.

And even though we lost, we played a great match. Now, what about this second fixture of the evening? Switzerland up against Argentina.

And I'm guessing you haven't slept much. I haven't slept much. No, it was an all nighter of football, especially as an English and Swiss supporter.

And yeah, I don't really know what to say about this game, to be honest. It was quite an excruciating watch. Not the best game of football I've ever seen.

Yet, Mac Alistair gave the reigning champions the lead. Only 10 minutes into the game, heading the ball past Gregor Cobel off a Leo Messi cross. And then Argentina basically stopped doing very much at all.

Switzerland were gaining in momentum, culminating in managing to get the equaliser, thanks to Dan Endoy. But that goal was quickly overshadowed after another VAR controversy. Mbolo, Braille Mbolo, initially looked like he had been fouled by Leandro Paredes, who was shown a yellow.

Unfortunately, VAR showed that Mbolo had actually dived. And the referee decided to remove the yellow he had handed to Paredes and give it instead to the Swiss forward. That made it Mbolo's second yellow card of the game.

And he was sent off, quite obviously upset, in tears. Now, that obviously made the challenge even greater for Switzerland. But Lanati defended valiantly, one man down, dragging Argentina into extra time.

In the end, though, Julien Alvarez scored a stunning goal, curled in from outside the box. And as Switzerland pushed for a second leveller, they were caught on the counter and suffered a third and final goal at the hands of an unconvincing Argentinian side. Here's what the Argentina head coach Leonel Scaloni thought of his team's performance.

And the reality is that we suffered. But to get to a World Cup semi-final, it's very difficult not to suffer. You suffer, you suffer.

In Qatar, also, we suffered. Maybe playing better than today, but we also suffered there. So it's something to be proud of, having reached a semi-final.

Meanwhile, it is the end of the road for the Swiss after a historic run. Fans were disappointed about the result, but proud of a team that united a country across generations. Take a listen.

It's almost unfair to Switzerland. We should have won. But it doesn't matter, madam.

You know, the pride is there. We've got our pride. I feel sorry for Mbolo, but I'm wholeheartedly behind him so that he wins the next time.

But there was so much joy, so much emotion in the way that Nadi played. I'm really very moved and deeply touched. And I spent the whole night awake with them.

And with that, we know the semi-finals are now fixed. Yeah, the semi-finals are now fixed. Loads more cool football waiting for us ahead.

France will be heading to Dallas for their semi-final against reigning European champions Spain. That kicks off at 9pm Paris time on the 14th of July. England, meanwhile, will play their fourth ever World Cup semi-final against world champions Argentina in Atlanta on the 15th.

That game will also be kicking off at 9pm Paris time. Well, finally, Emily, bring us up to date with the latest World Cup news. Yes, well, there's a lot of news to go through, but let's start with one question.

How far will FIFA go to make money? FIFA is stripping football for parts and selling it off to the highest bidder. But it's even got even more ridiculous.

Recently, if you have between $450 and $3,000 to spend, you can now buy yourself a tiny corner of grass from the World Cup final on the FIFA website. That mad price tag will get you a bit of turf, cast in resin, and accompanied with a USB stick containing an authenticity film. The cheapest $450 option will get you a 6x6cm square, slightly smaller than the average size of a post-it note.

The cash grab is even more ridiculous, considering that players have repeatedly complained about how bad the football pitch actually is. Now, football is up for sale, so check the FIFA website before the game is completely gone. Meanwhile, the Senegalese Football Association has fired head coach Pep Thieu after a disappointing World Cup run.

He had been coaching the Senegal squad since 2024 and was involved in the infamous incident at this year's Afghan, where he staged a walkout in the final against Morocco. French daily L'Equipe reported that Patrick Vieira, the French World Cup winner who was born in Dakar, is among the favourites to take over. Meanwhile, the French national team has once again been the target of racial abuse, this time coming from former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

In a tribune written on the website of the Spanish daily El Debate, the politician discussed Spain's upcoming fixture against France. And while he praised the French squad as being of a very high level, he added one caveat, they have achieved this despite not having any Frenchmen. And his comments come only a few days after a Paraguayan senator made similarly distasteful comments about Kylian Mbappe.

And elsewhere, some rather sad news was announced yesterday. The South African international Jadon Adams has died at the age of 25. The footballer was in all three of Bafana Bafana's group stage games.

No cause of death has yet been given and a police investigation is underway in Cape Town. Nick Rushworth tells us more. He was playing for the South African national side, the Bafana Bafana squad, just last month in the World Cup.

Midfielder Jadon Adams was found dead on Saturday at a house in Cape Town. The South African sports minister, Gaten McKenzie, said, It is with profound shock and a heavy heart that I have learnt of the passing of Jadon Adams. South African football has lost one of its brightest young talents.

Adams was 25 years old. He'd just returned from the World Cup after playing in all three of South Africa's group stage matches. He started in two of them against Mexico and the Czech Republic.

A few weeks ago, he won the African Champions League with his club, the Pretoria-based Mamelodi Sundowns. In 2024, he was part of the South African squad that finished third in the Africa Cup of Nations. FIFA president Gianni Infantino said, My thoughts and condolences, as well as those of everyone at FIFA and the global football community, are with his family, friends and teammates.

The Bafana Bafana and Mamelodi Sundowns star will be sorely missed. May he rest in peace. Cape Town police have launched an investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding the player's death.

Yes, and before we leave, a thought for journalist Christophe Glez, who remains detained in Algeria. He was given a seven-year sentence for what was said to be glorifying terrorism. His lawyers are hoping that a presidential pardon may happen.

He was working on a report on the country's most decorated football club, Jeune Esportive de Kabylie, when he was arrested over two years ago. Well, thank you for that. France 24's Emily Boyle there for the World Cup debrief.

It's not long now until we inch ever so close to a final and she can finally sleep again.