What was the England XI when they last played Argentina at a World Cup?

Liam Williams Published: 46 minutes ago

England take on Argentina in a mouth-watering World Cup semi-final on Wednesday evening.

A rivalry that dates back decades is renewed in Atlanta with the small matter of a place in the World Cup final up for grabs.

England and Argentina have met 14 times in their history and five times at World Cups. Promisingly, the Three Lions have only lost three of their previous meetings with La Albiceleste, though two did come in the 1986 and 1998 World Cup.

Their previous meeting was the iconic 3-2 win -- in a friendly -- in which England scored two late goals to win in Geneva, but their previous competitive meeting came two years earlier at the 2002 World Cup.

Drawn in the 'Group of Death', England faced Sweden, Argentina and Nigeria, and having drawn 1-1 with Sweden, the Three Lions needed to avoid defeat with Sweden beating Nigeria earlier in the day and Argentina beating Nigeria in their first group game.

Set amidst the backdrop of the controversial 1998 encounter in which David Beckham was sent off for kicking out at Diego Simeone, becoming public enemy number one, Beckham had restored his reputation amongst the England faithful with his free-kick against Greece to secure their place in Japan and South Korea.

A tense encounter, England hit the post early on through Michael Owen with Owen then going down under a challenge from Mauricio Pochettino to win a penalty shortly before half-time.

Beckham would step up, driving his penalty down the middle to give England a 1-0 lead, a lead they'd hold onto, picking up their first win of the 2002 World Cup.

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