World Cup 2026: I still feel pain of ’98 but this can be different for England – Alan Shearer

I don’t think Argentina have played great football up to this point, but they have scored some great goals. They are an experienced and street-savvy team, and they are also the reigning champions.

They’re not as good as they were four years ago, but what they’re best at is finding a way to get results when they need them.

Of course, it will be beneficial for Messi to be at the top. Everything Argentina do goes through him and whenever they win the ball they always look at where he is.

How do you stop him? Using someone like Djed Spence to mark him man-to-man and track him wherever he goes could be an option, but I think England will stick to the same pattern they have used in their previous six games.

So rather than someone focusing on tracking Messi, it will probably be a matter of one or two of our players getting in front of him to limit his space when he receives the ball.

There will be other challenges all over the pitch, so for England to win we will need to do more than just keep Messi quiet, but if we can do that then obviously we have a much better chance.

However, if I am going to talk about Messi, I also have to talk about our superstars. Harry Kane was great, Jude Bellingham is having the tournament of his life.

Like Messi, Bellingham has won four man of the match awards so far – or Outstanding Player of the Match as FIFA calls them – which is incredible.

Both are in conversation for player of the tournament and both are match winners. No matter who makes it to the final, you have to think one of them will play a big role.

I’m backing England to achieve this – I think we’ll have enough to beat Argentina because we’ll cause more problems than they will cause us – but there’s no way I can expect it to be simple.

None of our matches in this World Cup have been easy or even comfortable so far, except perhaps the second half of our opening game against Croatia, and I don’t think this one is any different.

I’ll be there again, commentating alongside Guy Mowbray, and my message to my hometown audience will be to buckle down; It could be a great evening for all of us, but it’s definitely going to be a bumpy ride.

Alan Shearer was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan