ATLANTA — England are one win away from their first World Cup final appearance in 60 years.

To get there, all they’ll have to do is beat an Argentina side looking to become the first back-to-back champion since Brazil in 1958 and ’62.

The two sides with a heated World Cup history face off on Wednesday in Atlanta for the right to face the winner of Tuesday’s Spain-France semifinal in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sunday. The losers of each semifinal will meet in a third-place match Saturday at Miami Gardens, Fla.

“This is as big as it gets, so I’m really excited for this week,” England captain Harry Kane told ITV this week. “I think it’s going to be a special game and what a tough team to play against but hopefully, that brings the best out in us.”

England’s World Cup history against Argentina is favorable on the whole, with a 3-1-1 record. Those two non-wins, though, are among the darkest marks in the country’s soccer history, a 2-1 loss in the 1986 quarterfinals on the infamous “Hand of God” goal by Diego Maradona, and a 2-2 penalty-shootout loss in the round of 16 in 1998, a match marred by David Beckham’s second-half red card.

Kane downplayed any notion of those past matches weighing on this England squad.

“I think it’s not something you want to focus too much on, surrounding the history. Yeah, that’s all part of it and that’s what (media members) will talk about, the fans will be involved in,” Kane said. ” … It’s England versus Argentina, it’s two of the biggest nations going toe to toe. Two giants in the semifinal of a World Cup. The rest of it is just a small part.”

While Kane led the way early for England with five goals in their first four matches, Jude Bellingham has been carrying the weight of late. Bellingham has delivered consecutive braces in the last two wins against Mexico and Norway to pull even with Kane and France’s Ousmane Dembele in the Golden Boot race with six goals apiece.

But they’re all chasing Argentine superstar Lionel Messi, who is tied with France’s Kylian Mbappe atop the leaderboard with eight goals in this tournament.

Messi, 39, has already broken the World Cup records for career goals (21) and assists (10) in this year’s tournament, his record sixth appearance. But Argentina showed they are more than Messi the last time out.

He didn’t score in Argentina’s 3-1 extra-time defeat of Switzerland in the quarterfinals, snapping his record nine-match World Cup scoring streak. It was an important showcase of the squad’s depth after he scored eight of their 14 goals through the first five matches.

Despite Messi’s heroics and the rest of the team’s strides, it hasn’t yet felt like Argentina have reached their peak in the knockout stage. They needed extra time to win two of their first three elimination matches and rallied from down 2-0 in the final 12 minutes of regulation to beat Egypt in the round of 16.

“Luck was with us (vs. Switzerland),” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said, a statement which could be applied to their entire knockout run. “We must be realistic, there are things we need to improve.”

And yet, here resilient Argentina are, respectful of their toughest opponent to date but certainly not intimidated.

“They have great players, but beyond the individual names they’re a team,” Argentina defender Gonzalo Montiel said. “Our focus is on ourselves first.”

–Field Level Media

France defender William Saliba departed in the first half of Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal against Spain at Arlington, Texas, with an undisclosed injury.

Saliba sat down near midfield in the 28th minute while taking possession of the ball and was unable to continue. The Arsenal player has struggled with back issues for the past three years.

Saliba was replaced by Maxence Lacroix in the 30th minute.

The injury came shortly after Spain took a 1-0 lead on a goal from the penalty spot by Mikel Oyarzabal. The penalty was awarded when France defender Lucas Digne committed a foul on Spain forward Lamine Yamal.

Spain added a goal in the 58th minute, scored by Pedro Porro.

The winner of Tuesday’s semifinal advanced to Sunday’s World Cup Final at East Rutherford, N.J., against the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal match between Argentina and England.

–Field Level Media

While the Claret Jug that is handed to the winner of The Open Championship remains one of the most respected trophies in golf, the payouts for the tournament are lacking among sport’s four majors.

The 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England, will hand out $17.75 million in prize money on Sunday.

The Masters and U.S. Open each handed out $22.5 million in prize money this year, while the PGA Championship had a $20.5 million purse. Of those three events, the U.S. Open had the biggest increase from 2025, adding $1 million.

The Open Championship increased its purse this year by $750,000, but that number is behind all three of the other majors.

Prize money for PGA Tour and DP World Tour events has increased steadily since the advent of LIV Golf in 2022.

LIV is paying out $32.3 million at each of its tournaments this year but recently lost its prime source of funding when Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced it would no longer bankroll the tour.

The winner of The Open Championship, which tees off Thursday, will receive $3.2 million. That sum is up $100,000 from last year.

Rory McIlroy earned $4.5 million for winning The Masters in April, while Aaron Rai took home $3.69 million for winning the PGA Championship in May and Wyndham Clark earned $4.5 million for winning the U.S. Open in June.

–Field Level Media