This game pretty much summed up both England and Argentina perfectly. Argentina played rather defensively for the most part and, one might add, very aggressively, while all England wanted was one goal, the first goal. And they even got that goal from Gordon, who was found with an absolutely delicious cross by Rogers. And then Tuchel made some baffling tweaks that just made the entire English team sit back in an extreme low block and defend for their lives for the next 40 minutes. England ended the game with six, yes, SIX defenders on the pitch. What this also causes is that if you happen to concede a goal or manage to hoof the ball out of your own penalty area, you have no attacking outlets remaining with Gordon, the only one in this English side who could exploit the Argentine defensive line with his speed, being taken off. Every single English player was behind the ball, and all Argentina had to do was pepper them with crosses and passes into the box to pin them back. The problem with this game plan is, and why it worked against Mexico and not against Argentina, is one man: Messi. You CANNOT go into that defensive of a structure without any intention of attacking with that absolute DEMON on the pitch. And once again, just like against Egypt, he stepped up, took the onus on himself in the last 20 minutes, and turned this game around pretty much single-handedly. He had able allies in Enzo and Lautaro, but pretty much 90% of everything went through Messi on the right flank, either beating his man on the outside and whipping a cross in or cutting in and playing those absolutely sublime one-twos to open up the English backline. And I can't lie, I enjoyed every minute of him running the clock back. One has to soak it in; he might only play one more game in Argentine colors. People may dislike this Argentine team, but watching Messi play at his absolute best is always a special, special thing to witness.