The second 2026 World Cup semifinal match is a heavyweight battle as Lionel Messi and Argentina take on Jude Bellingham and England in Atlanta, Ga., on Wednesday. Both teams have fought hard to get to this point and have faced questions about their structure, but the star power of Messi and Bellingham has prevailed to this point. A spot in the final is now on the line. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.
England are -116 favorites to qualify for the final in the latest Argentina vs. England odds from FanDuel while Argentina are +102. The Over/Under for total goals scored in regulation time is 2.5. There are plenty of other soccer betting options at FanDuel, where you can use the latest FanDuel promo code to get $1,000 in bet reset tokens.
You can get even more Argentina vs. England picks and more World Cup bets from SportsLine's experts like Brad Thomas, Jon Eimer, Martin Green, Matt Severance and Brandt Sutton. Anyone following their World Cup betting advice at sportsbooks and on betting apps could have seen huge returns.
Argentina vs. England odds
| Argentina vs. England 90-minute money line: | England +170, Tie +190, Argentina +200 |
| Argentina vs. England 90-minute over/under: | 2.5 (Over +138, Under -170) |
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Argentina vs. England betting preview
Which force is more powerful -- Lionel Messi's ability to drag his team over the line, or England's stubborn perseverance?
That's the essential question at the heart of this semifinal match. Argentina have never looked like the best team in this tournament, but their matches have still carried an air of inevitability. Even when Cabo Verde took Argentina kicking and screaming to extra time or when Egypt jumped out to a 2-0 lead, the Argentines were never truly out of it as long as Messi was on the pitch. The GOAT's legs aren't what they used to be, and he now spends the majority of his time walking rather than running, but Messi can still make surgical sprints and score legendary goals (even if manager Lionel Scaloni may want to think about giving someone else penalty kick duties). Now 39, Messi still has the ability to bend a game to his will.
But Argentina isn't just Messi and 10 random guys. Scaloni has embraced some of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal and Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid and turned the side into a set piece monster that bullies in the midfield, albeit without the sturdiness in the back line that those club teams usually offer -- Lisandro Martinez in particular has been at fault for a couple of ugly goals. Enzo Fernandez and Alexis Mac Allister have done yeoman's work in the middle. The introduction of Leandro Paredes and Atleti attacker Julian Alvarez into the starting lineup has yielded mixed results, but the idea is to use Paredes to maintain more control while Alvarez is more reliable sidekick for Messi than Lautaro Martinez.
Will that control manifest against England? It's hard to to say. Thomas Tuchel's team strives for control, too. It just doesn't always get what it wants. The Three Lions gave a heroic effort against Mexico in the Estadio Azteca, but how much of that victory was El Tri not knowing how to deal with an ultra-compact and much bigger team after England went down to 10 men? Would the result against Norway have been different if Alexander Sorloth had just passed that ball to a wide open Erling Haaland?
The English midfield was supposed to be a source of strength with a pair of £100 million men in Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson, but Rice has been all over the place between injuries and illness. Anderson, to his credit, played excellently against Norway. Rice has reportedly been sick for the last few days and likely won't be at 100% capacity if he plays. That's not great news for an English back line that's been the subject of quite a bit of scruitny, which needs all the help it can get from the defensive midfield. Nearly every defender has supplied both heroic moments and howlers. That sort of variance is begging for trouble when Messi is on the pitch.
Thankfully for England, the Three Lions have two of the most dynamic attackers in the world in Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane. Kane is a deadly scorer and theoretically the focal point of the entire team, but it's Bellingham who has emerged as arguably the most important player with heroic goal after heroic goal. Argentina will be seriously hard pressed to contain him.
These are two well-matched sides with plenty of historic reasons to approach the match with chips on their shoulders, both on and off the pitch. The atmosphere in Atlanta should be intense. England has found ways to survive time and time again, and while Messi should have at least one moment of magic, the dynamism of Bellingham may be too much for the Argentine defense. England will have reason to dream that it's coming home.
Argentina vs. England picks, prediction
England to qualify for the next round (-110)
This could easily be a game that drags out into extra time, so we'll take this reasonably priced prop to say that England will somehow, someway, send Messi to the third-place match. As much as it pains me to say this as an Argentina supporter (I'm praying my diehard Messi fan mom doesn't read this), the Argentine defense is just too questionable to keep Bellingham and Kane in line.
Lionel Messi anytime goalscorer including extra time (+130)
He's leaving with something. Messi is too much of a cheat code and England's defense is too fragile for the GOAT to not draw blood in this match. It may not be enough for Argentina to avoid the third-place match, but Messi won't walk away empty handed.
