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Agencies

For a while on Tuesday, it appeared that the players of World Cup holders Argentina might shed a tear following their round-of-16 match against Egypt.
And Argentina star Lionel Messi was seen weeping after the final whistle, but it was out of joy and relief rather than disappointment. Argentina trailed by two goals with 11 minutes to play in Atlanta, then stormed back for a stunning 3-2 victory.
Rather than pack up their base camp at Sporting Kansas City’s Compass Minerals National Performance Centre, Argentina will stick around for a while longer and play another match in the city.
Saturday’s quarter-final at Kansas City Stadium (Arrowhead) will pit Argentina against Switzerland, who defeated Colombia 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out following a scoreless draw in Vancouver.
Switzerland are the last Cinderella in the tournament as they had not made a World Cup quarter-final since 1954. The Swiss, who have never advanced to the semi-finals, will try to make history in Kansas City.

Argentina’s comeback was fuelled by Messi – who else? – as he assisted on the first goal, then scored to level the score. Argentina won it in added time at the end of the second half with Enzo Fernández’s header, holding off the Egyptian upset bid.
Messi, who missed a first-half penalty-kick attempt, cried on the field after the victory.
“When I saw Leo crying on the field,” forward Lautaro Martínez told reporters, “I told him that I cried because he deserves it.”
Argentina trailed for much of the match, the first time the team had faced a deficit at the World Cup, although it scraped by with a 3-2 win over Cabo Verde after extra time in the round of 32.
“Happiness for the qualification, it had gotten very tough,” Messi told reporters after the match. “We suffered a lot again, but this is the World Cup. All the matches are turning out like this. It was a relief for everyone, given how the match played out. But this group never gives up and fights until the end.”
“It’s crazy what this group did today.”
Switzerland’s win lacked the theatrics of Tuesday’s early match, at least for the first 120 minutes, but the penalty-kick shoot-out had a touch of drama. Colombia fell behind after two rounds of the shoot-out but tied it, only to miss on the fourth attempt, and that proved decisive.
In the fifth round, Switzerland’s Ruben Vargas converted the winning try. Had he missed, it would have gone to sudden death in the shoot-out.

“It was just amazing, to see him smash that in. I was so relieved and happy,” Switzerland coach Murat Yakin told reporters afterward. “This is a historic moment. We have reached the best ever for the Swiss team, but the ‌trip ⁠goes on.”
And the next stop on the trip is in Kansas City, a place few people expected to see the Swiss, who are Fifa’s 14th-ranked side. Only Norway, at 18, sit lower in the rankings.
“It’s just an incredible feeling, an incredible win for us to be here, to be in the quarter-finals at the World Cup on this stage. As small a country as we are, it’s amazing,” Switzerland goalkeeper Gregor Kobel said after making a big save in the shoot-out and getting a clean sheet.
For viewers in the Alpine nation, the match in Canada finished shortly before 1am on Wednesday, triggering car horns, cowbells and fireworks long into the night.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin hailed Switzerland’s “historic” achievement on X.
“Congratulations to the entire team and all the staff for this historic result!” Parmelin said in a video from Mexico City, wearing a Switzerland scarf and his red “Switzerland: Great since 1291” baseball cap.
“I enjoyed it; it was tense. And now it’s the first step towards the final.
“All the best for the last two matches before the final!”
Newspapers hailed the achievement, with the Tribune de Geneve calling the win simply “Magic”.
Le Temps said: “This Swiss team is ready to go even further”, adding that “this milestone will strengthen the unity and confidence of a group that continues to improve”.

The Neue Zurcher Zeitung said the national team had defied the odds and was “having the best World Cup in its history – because it has an answer to every eventuality”.
“The generation of players centred around Granit Xhaka and Ricardo Rodriguez has shown a tenacity unlike any before them.”
Switzerland’s only other World Cup quarter-final came when they hosted the tournament in 1954 – and produced what still stands as an all-time record match.
The Swiss lost 7-5 to neighbours Austria in the highest-scoring World Cup match ever. The game is known in German as the “Hitzeschlacht von Lausanne” (“the heat battle of Lausanne”), because temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius.


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Ruben Vargas (right) celebrates with his Swiss teammates after scoring the winning penalty in the shootout win over Colombia in Vancouver on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

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Switzerland’s Ruben Vargas scores the fifth and winning penalty in the shoot-out. Photo: TNS

Swiss fans cheer the win at a public viewing in Zurich on Tuesday. Photo: AP

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Football

Switzerland have not qualified for the last eight since 1954, when they were hosts, and have never advanced to the semi-finals


Switzerland have not qualified for the last eight since 1954, when they were hosts, and have never advanced to the semi-finals.


Fifa World Cup 2026

Lionel Messi

Teary Argentina, Messi now face World Cup’s last Cinderella team in quarter-finals

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Switzerland have not qualified for the last eight since 1954, when they were hosts, and have never advanced to the semi-finals

Switzerland have not qualified for the last eight since 1954, when they were hosts, and have never advanced to the semi-finals