ENGLISH CHAMPAGNE PROBLEMS

It has been sixty years. Sixty years of waiting. Sixty years of waiting for the dance with destiny for England. Sixty years of them being the nearly men, of penalties missed in moonlight, of exits that felt less like defeats and more like afflictions.
And yet, here are they. Six games deep, into the semi-finals of this World Cup. The eternal bridesmaids are here with Miami's humidity still in their lungs beating the Nordic Vikings.
The road to this semi-final has been everything. England are chaotic, brilliant, maddening, somehow still standing. They opened against Croatia in Dallas with a 4-2 win that felt more like a statement of intent than a controlled performance. Then came the draw against Ghana in Boston, that goalless afternoon that made the nation grip its armchair. A nervy 2-0 against Panama sealed the group. Routine enough, but England do not do routine.
The knockout rounds turned their volume up. Against Congo DR, they were trailing, staring down elimination with 15 minutes left. Harry Kane, 32 years old and carrying the quiet fury of a man who has been here before and walked away empty-handed, pulled them back with an equaliser and then a winner in the space of moments. It was brutal, direct and necessary. Yet very English.

Then the Azteca. Mexico City. The altitude, the noise, the ghost of 86. Jude Bellingham scored twice to put England ahead, and then Mexico came back. Of course they did. It ended 3-2, with Jarell Quansah sent off and England hanging on through will alone. Somehow, beautifully, they got through.
It is England's fourth appearance in a World Cup semi-final. The previous three - 1966, 1990, 2018 - carry very different emotional weights. Only one of them has a happy ending, and it is the one that started this whole sixty-year myth.
Now comes Argentina. The reigning champions. Lionel Messi, still here at 38, still making Swiss defenders question their life choices in extra time. The Albiceleste have made hard work of every round, scraping past Cape Verde, mounting a late comeback against Egypt, surviving Switzerland. But they are somehow through, and Messi is still in the tournament.
England versus Argentina has always been more than a football match. It is history colliding with the present — Maradona's hand, Beckham's red card, Sven's penalty shootout, all of it feeding into the same long river. But this England team does not seem particularly interested in history. They seem interested only in what is next.
“Everyone will talk about Messi because he’s one of the GOATs (greatest of all time) of the game,” Jordan Pickford said.
“But you can’t look past the ability and the talent we’ve got in the squad – going forward, defensively, togetherness. We’ve got it all there and that’s what we need to put on show on Wednesday,” he added.
“We’ve got that resilience, we’ve got that togetherness and we’ve got that mentality. That’s what makes a good team,” the goalie affirmed.
Wednesday. Atlanta. Eight in the evening, British time. All the pubs across the island will be open till the morning. Question remains whether they will drink to charge for the final or they will drink to put their tears away.
Really a champagne problem for the Three Lions it seems.