The four semi-finalists, in one line, and what I actually mean by it.
I put this out on X yesterday and it has more than a million views, which tells me it touched a nerve:
Spain — the best team.
France — the best player and the most frightening attack.
Argentina — the best idea.
England — two world-class players on form.
They all have what is needed to win the tournament.
Let me unpack each one properly.
Spain — the best team
I say this because no other side at this World Cup has built itself around one idea with the same discipline. Both the manager and the squad were chosen for a single footballing philosophy, one followed for more than two decades: intelligence, technical quality and tactical understanding converted into combinations, link-up play and off-the-ball movement that you simply don't find anywhere else in the tournament.
That's what a genuinely well-drilled team looks like. Every other side has either prioritised something else, or hasn't found that same cohesion.
But no team is without flaws, and Spain's is efficiency. We dominate, we create enough to win games more comfortably, but we don't. We have the best ratio of chances created against chances converted. But we can score more.
If there's one obvious area to improve, it is that and, of course, Lamine Yamal. He is the solution and, if he pushes away some of the anxiety that makes him rush decisions, the room from improvement too, as he is the only Spanish player able to win a game by himself.
He doesn't have to score himself — his through ball to Porro for the first goal against Belgium showed what he adds — but a touch more efficiency from him in the final third could take this team from very good to unstoppable.
France — the best player and the most frightening attack
France has got not one, but two top teams! They have been working since the 1998 World Cup in a defence of 4 plus two powerful holding midfielders. So they know exactly what they have to do. The midfield does exactly what it's asked to do, which is mostly defensive sweeping rather than building: get the ball, protect it, move it forward quickly.
Their front line of four is the most dangerous in the competition, and they are on great form.
If you're patient, if you take the ball off them and simply pass it around without rushing, gaps start to appear. The danger, of course, is that if they win the ball back while you do that, they have the best counter-attack in the tournament. So the trade-off is brutal: patience can unlock them, but losing the ball invites their most lethal weapon.
Argentina — the best idea
Everything is built around one question: how do we create the conditions for Messi to shine? And it's been working: this is the same group that has now won its last three semi-finals and gone on to win the final each time. Four trophies from four finals, if you count the Finalissima. They do, so you should!
The idea is simple in theory: play at a tempo where Messi is comfortable, get the ball to him in the final third, and let him finish moves — scoring, assisting, or drawing fouls that shift the balance of a game.
Not much needs to happen before that final moment. Against Switzerland, it was Julian Alvarez with the magic moment, but you get the idea.
The problem is balance. The attack was excellent against Cabo Verde and Egypt, but the defence has been leaky: five goals conceded across three games, including Jordan. And there's tension that comes with an idea built around waiting: against Switzerland it took a long time for that patience to pay off, and for spells Switzerland were the better side.
At times you could see Messi's frustration that the team wasn't controlling the ball or the tempo the way the plan requires. This is also the oldest starting XI left in the tournament, with the exception of one side Iran fielded in the group stage. High tempo is their biggest fear.
The room for improvement is obvious: hold more of the ball, dictate the rhythm of games a bit better till that moment arrives. And they have had a lot of luck so far with certain decisions, they cannot wait for luck to fall their way all the time.
England — two world-class players on form, while they find themselves
There's an interesting tension at the heart of this England team, and it has been played out publicly, in a healthy way, between Jude Bellingham and Thomas Tuchel. After Norway, Tuchel pushed for a better collective team performance; Bellingham's response, in essence, has been that the players have already given everything and that should be praised. That disagreement, openly and creatively handled, is basically the story of this England side.
Bellingham and Harry Kane are both capable of winning a match on their own, that's not in question. What Tuchel wants is for winning to be the consequence of a collective structure, not just individual brilliance layered with the emotion and personality this England group clearly has in abundance.
They do have that personality: the dramatic win over Mexico is the kind of result that builds deep and lasting belief in a squad.
But England look like a team still searching for themselves. They try to organise themselves around the ball, with and without it, but it unravels often. They don't look particularly solid in or out of possession, and there still seems to be some uncertainty about what their real strengths are, and what their limitations might be.
Above all, they've found it difficult to play with a genuine collective mindset. So the individuals have decided to take a step forward.
What they're missing first is time to build Tuchel's ideal (but you don't have that at national team level), and I feel the manager is realising how far he can go in the moulding of the mind of the players (not very far).
They are also lacking a genuine number 10, a creative midfielder who can control games, someone who reads the moment, picks the right pass, and decides the tempo depending on the state of the match, so the ball gets to the two world stars for them to finish things off.
Right now, England are getting through on moments of individual quality and emotional intensity. And while that may feel like the common ground between the two visions of the team represented by Jude Bellingham and Thomas Tuchel, so far, it has been enough, and can take them all the way.
So four teams with different routes to get to the same destination. For the first time in history, the top four of the FIFA ranking meet in the World Cup semi-finals. And the four of them have got what is required to win the tournament.
Bet on France v Spain at the World Cup
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