Spain vs Argentina: Who Will Rule the World?
Different roads taken
Around six weeks ago, 48 teams were ready to rock and roll. After much drama, excitement and heartbreak, we’re down to just two. On Sunday, the Spaniards and the Argentinians will fight it out for international soccer glory.
The current crop of Spaniards will be hoping to secure a second World Cup win, repeating what their predecessors did back in 2010, while many of the Argentinians will be hoping to get their hands on the prestigious World Cup trophy for the second time having gone all the way back in 2022, which was a third success for the South American nation.
In different ways, both teams have impressed at times during the tournament, and it’s definitely fair to say that they’ve taken rather different routes to this final.
First, let’s look at Spain’s knockout results to see how the Spanish reached the final:
Spain 3 -0 Austria
Spain 1 - 0 Portugal
Spain 2 - 1 Belgium
Spain 2 - 0 France
Luis de la Fuente’s men never looked out of control during the knockouts, and if you watched each of their knockout games, at no point would you have thought they were heading home. Conceding just one goal and scoring eight in the process, the Spaniards made the final in quite convincing fashion.
Now, here’s how the Argentinians fared in the knockouts, reaching the final off the back of the following results:
Argentina 3 - 2 Cape Verde (after extra time)
Argentina 3 - 2 Egypt
Argentina 3 - 1 Switzerland (after extra time)
Argentina 2 - 1 England
Unlike Sunday’s opponents, on several occasions, the Argentinians appeared to be on their way out. For starters, they’ve given away much more than the Spaniards have, conceding in four out of four knockout fixtures, shipping a worrying total of six goals.
The 2022 winners needed extra time to see off minnows Cape Verde in the Round-of-32. When they went two goals down against Egypt in the Round-of-16, they were in big trouble, before a seemingly unlikely late rally saw them through. They were then far from convincing against the Swiss, again being forced to extra time, despite playing against ten men for a sizable chunk of regulation time. Against old foes England in the semis, they could easily have gone home, and probably would have had the Three Lions not lost their bottle when leading.
Spain vs Argentina key details
The 2026 renewal of the World Cup Final will take place in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the Spanish and Argentinian players will take to the field at New York New Jersey Stadium, which stands just five miles west of New York City.
Key details for Spain vs Argentina:
Date: Sunday, July 19th
Kick off time: 16:00 ET
Venue: East Rutherford, New Jersey
Where to watch: FOX
This will be the first time at this World Cup that the Spanish have got down to business at temporarily named New York New Jersey Stadium, while the Argentinians have also come through the competition without featuring in East Rutherford, so both teams will take to the field as equals in that sense.
Can the holders keep getting away with it?
Let’s be brutally honest, the Argentinians have ridden their luck at the 2026 World Cup, and not just a little bit. They were very fortunate against Egypt, profiting from some rather questionable decisions, so much so that people started to seriously question whether a supposedly unbiased and fair governing body has a penchant for Lionel Messi and his pals, and rightly so. Those questions once again came to the fore against the Swiss, who had Breel Embolo questionably dismissed following a dubious VAR intervention, while the general refereeing in that game certainly seemed to favor the Argentinian players.
Against the English in the semi-finals, there weren’t so many questions hanging over the referee, but not for the first time in the knockouts, Lionel Scaloni’s men struggled to dominate, before coming from behind for the second time in three games.
The question now is can they get away with this against a proper team, a team that is dominant and unrelenting? Unless they get another helping hand from their friends at a certain federation, it looks as if the Argentinians will struggle to get the better of a superior Spain team. Then again, stranger things have happened.
