The 2026 FIFA World Cup has reached its business end, with the quarterfinals concluding. Argentina needed extra time to defeat Switzerland 3-1 in a dramatic contest, but the victory did not come from Lionel Messi.
Instead the moment of Day 29 of the World Cup came from Julián Álvarez, who struck in extra time to give the defending champions the win.
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Argentina kept looking for Lionel Messi. With every pass forward, with every run out of the back, every move designed to end up at the light blue boot of their captain, their everything. In deep trouble, that search for Messi had taken on more urgency, more desperation: 'just give him the ball, let him do what he's always done, let him be Messi.' It wasn't working, though.
In the second half of extra time, drawing 1 - 1 with Switzerland, Argentina were staring at the nerve-wracking possibility of a penalty shootout. Messi kept trying: Burrowing through the middle only to be met by a wall of red. Crossing it deep, and short, and not gaining any purchase. Shooting with his right, his left, and seeing Gregor Kobel pad them all away. He'd even seen a chip from close-range, that trademark I'm-better-than-you-let-me-show-you-finish, saved by Kobel (it was incorrectly called for offside, so the records book won't even mention it as an attempt).
In the 112th minute, Argentina looked for Messi again and found him again. Going from left to right, the ball reached him and he exploded into action. Cutting in at speed, outpacing his markers along the edge of the penalty box, he hit one at goal so hard he lost balance... but it was straight at Kobel, and the Swiss keeper excellently parried it away from the box and out onto the left flank. Kobel had made that easier than it looked, but that nuance did little to soothe Argentina nerves. It wasn't working. Messi wasn't making the difference.
What were they going to do now?
Well, give the ball to Julian Alvarez and watch him rewind time, apparently. Nothing had indicated that this was a winning plan, previously. All game, Alvarez had toiled hard, as he has at this World Cup -- running those extra yards like every other outfielder, so Messi can be Messi, stretching the game vertically, buzzing about when the high press was triggered -- without having much impact. In this game, much like the previous few, he'd looked like a shadow of the striker who had promised so much early with River Plate and Manchester City, who had thrilled the world in the 2022 edition of this tournament, who had won many a game for Atletico Madrid by his lone self in the succeeding years. The zip didn't seem to be there, nor that keen eye for goal. Recovering from an ankle injury suffered pre-World Cup, he'd not started early on for Lionel Scaloni's men, only returning to the XI properly in the previous knockout tie, and he looked rusty.
So, when Nico González recovered the ball from Kobel's parry of Messi's shot, he looked up and instead of giving it to Alvarez at the edge of the box, he immediately fired it back into the area, in the general direction of where Messi was in his mind. Before the ball got lost in the melee in the Swiss box, though, Jose Lopez intercepted it and ran out of the box with it, looking to recycle the ball back into Messi's feet. As he ran a wide U, he looked back to see Alvarez still standing at the corner of the box. 'Give it back to him, and he'll find a way to Messi' might have seemed a reasonable thought, but Lopez overhit the pass and Alvarez had to sprint and turn his body to collect the pass. That changed the whole equation.
If it had gone to his feet, and he'd received it front on, Alvarez might well have pushed it square in search of Messi, who was now standing in his own private bubble of space in the D. Except it didn't, and his running start plus change of body shape turned the calendar back to 2022... and the goal opened up.
The Swiss, lured by Alvarez's inactivity in the box all game, didn't close him down fast enough and that was it. A touch to send the ball rolling sideways, two little steps to set himself up, and Alvarez unleashed a sensational curler right into the far top corner. The definition of top bins.
As he wheeled away in celebration, dodging teammate after teammate (including a beaming Messi) on his zig-zag run before getting mobbed at the corner flag, the men in Swiss red looked defeated. For they were -- Argentina 2, Switzerland 1; game done and dusted. Lautaro Martínez would add shine to the score with almost the last kick of the match (the chance coming about because of Thiago Almada's insistence on looking for Messi even when bearing down one-on-one with the keeper), but it was the Alvarez wonder goal that had decided the match.
For once, an Argentine player hadn't looked for Messi, and in that moment, Julian Alvarez had reminded everyone watching that this Argentina team was about more than one man, that this unit did more than just run for their beloved talisman. That decision of his lit up this last day of the World Cup quarterfinals. Que Golazo.