The World Cup final four is set

The four teams standing

Between them, England, Argentina, France and Spain have won nine World Cups. Argentina and France are the two most recent champions. Spain have three European Championships and a World Cup to their name in the modern era. England, well — England have 1966, and the weight of everything that's come since.

That each of these sides has navigated a 48-team tournament to the final four is its own story. The expanded format was supposed to open the door for upsets, for the Moroccos and Japans of the world to go deeper. It has done that, in rounds past. But at the business end, the old powers have reasserted themselves — and the bracket is richer for it.

What each team brings

Argentina arrive as defending champions, the shadow of the 2022 Qatar triumph still long enough to make every opponent uncomfortable. France, as ever, carry a squad that looks assembled by someone who found a cheat code. Spain, under their current setup, have made pressing and positional play feel inevitable — less a style, more a sentence. And England? England are here, in a World Cup semifinal, which for a certain generation of supporter still requires a moment of quiet confirmation.

The specific semifinal pairings have not been confirmed at time of writing — so the question of who plays who remains open. That uncertainty, for now, is almost part of the fun.

The matchup fans want

Ask around and the answer comes back quickly: Argentina vs England, or France vs Spain, would each carry enough history, enough narrative, enough actual football quality to justify the occasion on their own. An Argentina–England tie would be their first World Cup knockout meeting in nearly two decades, if history serves correctly — a stat worth verifying before it's carved in stone, but one that underlines just how rare this fixture is at this stage. France vs Spain would be a rematch of recent Nations League drama, played on the biggest stage the sport has.

The bracket hasn't confirmed which way it falls. But the draw — whatever it produces — has already won.

The spidercam sidebar

Somewhere in the background of all this, a debate around spidercam technology at the tournament is still rumbling. The details remain thin. It is, perhaps, the one subplot nobody asked for in a week that already has four of the best national teams in the world fighting for a place in the final.

Some conversations can wait.

--- Sources: ESPN FC live coverage; BBC Sport 2026 World Cup reporting.