Argentina 3-1 Switzerland: FIFA World Cup Quarter-Final Match Report

Argentina 3-1 Switzerland, after extra time, and a scoreline that hides how close this came to a different ending. Argentina led at half-time and were pegged back in the second half; at ninety minutes it was 1-1 and Switzerland were thirty minutes from a semi-final. Argentina then scored twice in the extra period to make the final margin look comfortable.

The equaliser is the moment the tie turned on, and the two goals in extra time are the answer to it. A team that has conceded an equaliser late in a World Cup quarter-final and then wins the additional period 2-0 is a team with something in reserve — and Argentina had already needed that quality twice, winning 3-2 against Cape Verde Islands and 3-2 against Egypt in the previous two rounds.

Switzerland's run ended in the phase where they had thrived. They had come through a Round of 16 tie against Colombia that finished 4-3, the highest-scoring knockout match before the third-place play-off. Taking Argentina to extra time, having drawn level after falling behind, is the strongest performance by a Swiss side at a World Cup in some time.

Switzerland topped their group with seven points: a 1-1 draw with Qatar, a 4-1 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina and a 2-1 win over Canada. The knockout phase started with a comfortable 2-0 against Algeria in the Round of 32, then the 4-3 against Colombia that announced them as a side capable of trading blows with anyone.

Argentina arrived with the tournament's most relentless pattern of narrow wins. Nine group points from 3-0 over Algeria, 2-0 over Austria and 3-1 against Jordan, then 3-2 against Cape Verde Islands in the Round of 32 and 3-2 against Egypt in the Round of 16. Every knockout match a one-goal margin, every one of them competitive into the final minutes.

That pattern held here and then broke in Argentina's favour. Level at ninety, two goals in extra time — the first knockout tie of their tournament they finished with breathing room, and only after 105 minutes of not having any.

It sent Argentina into a semi-final against England, which they won 1-2 from a goalless first half, and then into a final they lost 1-0 to Spain after extra time. Four knockout matches, four one-goal margins at the decisive moment, and a tournament run built almost entirely on winning the last twenty minutes.

The extra time here is the detail that carries forward. Argentina played 120 minutes in the quarter-final and 120 more in the final. Losing the final in the additional period, having twice won there earlier in the tournament, is the kind of symmetry that defines how a campaign is remembered.

For Switzerland, a quarter-final and 105 minutes of parity with the eventual finalists is a campaign to build on. Their two knockout matches produced eleven goals between them — 4-3 against Colombia, 3-1 here — which makes them, by some distance, the most entertaining side of the last sixteen.