The first semi-final matchup of the 2026 World Cup is set following the qualification of England and Argentina; England advanced after defeating Norway, while Argentina overcame Switzerland, setting the stage for a highly anticipated, heavyweight clash.<\/p>\n
Jude Bellingham led England to the 2026 World Cup semi-finals, scoring two goals in their 2\u20131 victory over Norway.<\/p>\n
With this result, England reached the semi-finals for the fourth time in their World Cup history\u2014following appearances in 1966, 1990, and 2018\u2014as they continue their quest for a second global title.<\/p>\n
Bellingham continued to shatter records, bringing his tally to six goals in six matches during the current tournament. This raised his overall World Cup goal count to seven, tying the record held by Brazilian legend Pel\u00e9 for the most goals scored in the tournament before the age of 23\u2014a list topped by Kylian Mbapp\u00e9.<\/p>\n
England continued to achieve remarkable milestones; Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham became the first duo in World Cup history to each score six or more goals for the same team in a single edition of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Norwegian striker Erling Haaland\u2019s scoring streak for his national team came to an end after 14 consecutive competitive matches, following his failure to find the net against England. Argentina Advances Past Switzerland to Set Up Clash with England<\/p>\n
Argentina secured a spot in the semi-finals after defeating Switzerland 3\u20131 in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
Argentina took the lead before Switzerland equalized; however, Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez scored the winning goal in the second period of extra time, and Lautaro Mart\u00ednez added a third to seal the victory.<\/p>\n
Argentina is set to face England in the semi-finals\u2014a match considered one of the tournament’s highlights, given the long history between the two teams and their shared ambition to reach the final.<\/p>\n
Argentina enters the match aiming to continue its title defense, while England seeks to reach the final and compete for a second world title.<\/p>\n
The highly anticipated match features a showdown between the teams’ star players: England relies on the brilliance of Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, while Argentina banks on the experience of Lionel Messi and a potent attack led by Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez and Lautaro Mart\u00ednez.<\/p>\n
The winner of this clash will secure a place in the 2026 World Cup final.<\/p>\n
All eyes are on the 2026 World Cup semi-final, which promises a thrilling encounter between England and Argentina. The match follows Jude Bellingham\u2019s stellar performance in leading his team to the final four, alongside Argentina\u2019s continued quest to defend its world title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first semi-final matchup of the 2026 World Cup is set following the qualification of England and Argentina; England advanced after defeating Norway, while Argentina overcame Switzerland, setting the stage for a highly anticipated, heavyweight clash. Bellingham Leads England to the Semi-Finals and Continues Making History Jude Bellingham led England to the 2026 World Cup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"7","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"left-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"topbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}