Love on the rebound: Messi, Argentina and the comeback that broke England

There’s an ABBA song, ‘Lay All Your Love On Me,’ which has been the anthem-soundtrack of Argentina for their last 7 World Cup games, including Wednesday’s semifinal against England. Let me explain.

For the most part, ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’ is a pedestrian pop song. In fact, right from kick-off--sorry, did I just say ‘kick-off’? — right from start, it has a glitch-like quality, the full-throated, crisp ABBA vocals sounding as if it’s going through the motions.

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That is until we hit 1:15 min into this 4:40 song. The chorus arrives, and swells into this great Wagnerian beauty: ‘Don't go wasting your emotion/
Lay all your love on me.’ It’s almost a different song. Even as we slide ahead to the banal bits again, we are left in awe of that sudden switch and what is leaves behind in its wake.

In every prior Argentina match to Wednesday’s, the side looked ragged in the first half, certainly worse for the wear in the VAR-assisted epic comeback match against Egypt even in the business end of the second half… until, as if Igor in Victor Frankenstein’s laboratory—or, Lionel Scaloni in the dressing room--flipped a switch, making the whole team break into one diabolical Tango Milonguero.

Against England--barring a 38th min Enzo Fernández cracker from 25 yards that almost scrapes the post beating Jordan Pickford--it happens again. Desolate, inchoate football, with Messi seemingly hidden behind Man City midfielder Elliot Anderson, Jude Bellingham outpacing any Argentinian down the flanks, and Declan Rice adding to the English suppression of Argentina in the 1st half.

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10 mins into the 2nd half, Anthony Gordon bams it in from a Morgan Rogers pass. Despite the virtual disappearance of Harry Kane courtesy Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martínez, you’d reckon it’s all very Keep Calm and Carry On for England. But you’d reckon wrong. That very Gordon goal is Argentina’s by-now customary Vamos! switch.

If that transformation was thrillingly unnatural, what followed was as puzzling as the still-unsolved Riemann Hypothesis: Thomas Tuchel going to a back-five so early after a single goal lead. In the 55th min of a World Cup semifinal. Against Argentina. I had to poke my nose with an agarbatti when I saw Gordon being substituted for—by the whiskers of Lord Kitchener! --centre-back Ezri Konsa in the 72nd min. This, at the very same time when Scaloni floods the field with Nicolas Otamendi, Gonzalo Montiel and Rodrigo De Paul to shut down the flanks for England while he lets the bulls in the front out on parade.

Scaloni shouldn’t have bothered with the defenders. England had buried itself deeper than a literary reference in a Chris Nolan movie. Argentina’s biblical-level locust raids just had a thank you note missing.

But what was transpiring on the field was yet to be reflected on the score sheet, no matter how much England were channelling their inner Oliver Twists and Turns, imploring, ‘Please, sirs, I want some more shots on goal.’ Nico Gonzalez’s piledriving downward header from a Messi cross in the 69th min is desperately pushed aside by Pickford. Alexis Mac Allister strikes the bar with his header in the 76th. Statistically, the law of statistics usually catches up. But the fact that England was 5 regulation time minutes away from reaching its second ever World Cup final is still, more than a day after the match, as unshakeable as a booger you desperately want to shake off.

The equaliser came, finally--and, only in hindsight, obviously--with Enzo Fernandez in the 85th min striking a supremely guided long-range missile into the England top left corner after Messi had misdirected a whole line of defenders to pass him the ball.

With 9 mins of added time, the 1-1 scoreline remaining and taking us into extra time seemed like an act of massive ecological damage. With Argentina literally irresistible now, Messi curled a cross into a thicket manned by 7 England defenders (excluding the keeper). Like a frame from the 60s-80s British football comic strip, Roy of the Rovers, the Messi missile lands on top of Lautaro Martinez’s head bobbing between the 6th (John Stones) and 7th (Reece James) England defenders at the far end. Lautaro Martinez headbangs it in. 2-1. With 7 min of injury time remaining.

The singular statistic of England having 12% possession between the time Gordon had put his side ahead and Martinez scoring the winning goal itself should get conspiracy theorists out in droves. But it was what it really was: a beast of a performance by Argentina. Once you rattle the cage ( once you rattle it? ), they will lay all their tough love on the other side.