England are two games away from ending 60 "years of hurt".

The first hurdle is an epic World Cup semi-final against Argentina.

But for real hurt, as anyone north of the border will tell you, try supporting Scotland.

The men's team at least managed to join the party in the United States this year, albeit briefly.

As the Tartan Army reminisces about those heady June days in Boston and Miami, a debate is emerging:

Should Scots back their near neighbours, or support anyone but England?

Scotland versus England is the original international football rivalry, dating back to 1872.

Both countries lay claim to being the inventors of the sport and in the early days the fixture was dominated by the Scots, who popularised the passing game.

By 1966, England were World Cup champions. Scotland, meanwhile, have never made it past the first round.

This year, qualifying for their first World Cup since 1998, Scotland's men's team were again unable to break that curse.

As England progress, possibly to a final, some Scottish football fans are making tricky decisions about where their loyalties lie.

'How could we live with an England win?'

Tartan Army organiser Hamish Husband, who was partly brought up in England and supports Carlisle United, does not watch England games.

"I feel too guilty about wanting them to lose," he tells BBC Scotland News.

As for a second World Cup title for England, Hamish asks rhetorically: "How could we live with it?"

It's not about the players, the manager, or the fans, he explains.

"England is our big brother, and sometimes you don't want your big brother to do well, do you?" Husband says.

Foremost in his thoughts is the media reaction to any English World Cup victory.

He says: "The Dutch don't watch German national games with German commentators, but we watch England games with English commentators talking about 'our nation', 'our country'.

"That does rile us."

Perhaps it should surprise no-one that a country whose national anthem reminisces about sending an invading English army homeward "tae think again" does not stand four-square behind the "Auld Enemy".

But that, of course, is just a soundbite. Scots' feelings are more complex.

According to a YouGov poll before the World Cup started, almost one in three (31%) Scots said they wanted England to do badly. Just 3% of English people said they hoped Scotland did poorly.

However, about one in 10 Scots - and a similar proportion of English people - said they would support their neighbours.

That correlates with the almost one in 10 people living in Scotland (506,207) that were born in England, according to the 2022 census.

Family ties also run deep.

Robbie McSkimming, born and raised in Dunfermline, Fife, is a committed Scotland supporter and has cheered on the team against England at Hampden.

Yet, thanks to cross-border family links, the 30-year-old has long backed the Three Lions in the latter stages of international tournaments.

"Growing up there wasn't too much to cheer about for Scotland anyway," he tells BBC Scotland News in Glasgow.

"So when I was young and getting into football, having the choice to watch an England team that had all the players that I was watching on Match of the Day was quite enticing."

Robbie describes the "anyone but England" mentality as a "bit of fun in football", but says it is natural for him to support any team he has more in common with, whether that be England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

A bit of fun or 'churlish'?

Hamish says there is no excuse for anything beyond light-hearted jesting.

He also describes Scots dressing up in sombreros, Viking helmets or Argentina jerseys as "a bit churlish".

Churlish or not, Argentina tops have not been an uncommon site in Scotland - or indeed Boston - this summer, a nod to England's intense rivalry with the South Americans.

The last time England faced Argentina in a World Cup knockout tie, in 1998, one Ayrshire factory capitalised on the fixture by manufacturing the famous blue and white jerseys.

In the three Glasgow sports shops visited by the BBC on Tuesday, Argentina strips were in plentiful supply. There were no England shirts on sale.

During the 2002 World Cup, SNP economy spokesman Andrew Wilson attempted to reframe the relationship.

He called for the Tartan Army to back England, arguing it would be "a symbol for the strength of Scottish self-confidence".

Ahead of the 2006 tournament, a fresh-faced Andy Murray joked in a press conference that he would be supporting "anyone but England" - leading to hate mail and a clarification that he was not anti-English.

This year even King Charles got involved, cheekily noting it may be "too much to hope" that the Tartan Army would "cheer with full voice" for England after Scotland were knocked out.

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While Scottish broadcaster Andrew Neil declared his support for the Three Lions following Scotland's elimination, comments made last week by SNP MP Lara Bird suggest the King was right not to expect Scots to back England.

Bird, who is half English, told Politics Live that Scots had become "really passionate" Mexico and Norway supporters ahead of their games with England, adding that she was likely to cheer on the Norwegians.

The SNP have also issued a press release saying the party would "raise a glass to Argentina" - ostensibly to mark the one-year anniversary of a whisky deal.

Some laughed it off as light-hearted fun, but not everyone agreed.

Several commenters labelled Bird "pathetic", while others expressed puzzlement.

"If Scotland were playing anybody else in the world apart from England I'd be supporting them," MP Karl Turner posted.

But to many north of the border, the more pertinent question is why would they be expected to support the "Auld Enemy"?

For them, England's exit would simply be the most entertaining outcome.

A common response on social media is to post a clip of a Kevin Bridges stand-up set from 2020.

Impersonating a perplexed English person, the comedian says: "Let me get this straight ... you actively support the other teams because they're playing England?"

Reverting to his Glaswegian accent, Bridges adds: "That's pretty much it, mate."

Scotland and England's rivalry may be the oldest in football, but the dynamic is not unique.

New Zealanders have regularly seen their larger neighbours, Australia, outperform them at major tournaments.

"New Zealand's like the little brother, and they hate on their big brother a little bit and don't want them to do well," Jared McMillan, a Kiwi, tells BBC Scotland News.

Growing up in Gisborne, New Zealand, he spent almost a decade working in Melbourne, Australia.

Jared describes New Zealand's footballing community as tight-knit, having even faced some of the country's future international players while at university in Wellington.

Now based in New York, he says watching Australia games in Melbourne could be "insufferable".

He tells the BBC: "When everyone's happy and thinking they're the best, you're thinking I don't know about that - you're going to play a proper team soon, and you'll be found out.

"That might be similar, I guess, to how Scots feel about England."

'Best fans in the world'

Hamish, the Tartan Army organiser, spent a happy week in the United States last month, where he says Scots became "more popular than Taylor Swift".

But having once again seen the team exit at the group stage, he reflects: "I wish our football team was better.

"England could have the best football team - possibly world champions - but we've got the best fans in the world."

Scant consolation, perhaps. But when you support Scotland, you take what you can get.

• Why do Argentina sing about England and the Falklands?

The football teams of forty-eight countries set out with a chance of winning the World Cup on June 11, and the hopes of just four nations remain alive.

The top four teams in the FIFA rankings, with eight previous titles between them, will lock horns on Tuesday and Wednesday to try to secure a place in what is set to be the grandest of showpiece occasions in sport: the World Cup Final at New York New Jersey Stadium on Sunday, July 19.

Al Jazeera ranks the contenders for the title:

4. Argentina

What’s this? The defending champions as the outsiders?

Well, Algeria, Austria, Jordan, Cape Verde, Egypt and Switzerland must be one of the kindest ever paths to the business end of a World Cup, and La Albiceleste have not exactly been convincing along it.

They were made to sweat by Cape Verde and Egypt in the knockout stages before finding a way to prevail in dramatic circumstances, and the pattern was repeated against Switzerland in Kansas City on Saturday night, when they went almost 90 minutes without a shot on target following Alexis Mac Allister’s early opening goal.

Their ageing side eventually prevailed after 120 minutes in sweltering conditions. Had Switzerland kept 11 men on the field, things might have been very different, but, once again, in the end, the defending champions found a way to win when they were well below their best.

Surely they cannot get away with another performance like that against England? Well, England fans might well be saying the same about the Three Lions. Both Harry Kane and Lionel Messi fell well short of their best in the last-eight matchups too.

The outpouring of emotion from Messi at full-time in the comeback win over Egypt showed just how close the three-time winners came to being eliminated. In an already emotionally charged matchup with England, expect tempers to rise and tears to flow on either side come full-time.

If Argentina, and – in his first-ever appearance against the Three Lions – Messi, are able to rediscover their swagger and win, ousting their old foes from the tournament in the knockout stages for a third straight time, then the confidence and momentum they would take into the final would be huge.

However, nothing they have shown in the US this summer would suggest that is likely to happen.

And even if it did, whether it would be enough to give them the edge against European champions Spain, or a vengeful France side they vanquished on penalties in the epic final of Qatar 2022, is another matter entirely.

3. England

Have we seen the best of England in this tournament? Probably not. And yet, here they are, in the semifinals for just the fourth time ever.

The win over Norway was neither pretty nor convincing, and manager Thomas Tuchel admitted they were lucky to get through, thanks largely to Jude Bellingham putting the team on his shoulders at a couple of key moments once again. Could a midfielder really win the Golden Boot? He is only two behind Messi and Kylian Mbappe with six goals already.

Much to Tuchel’s frustration, bar a 20-minute purple patch in the second half of the 4-2 opening game win against Croatia, England have yet to dominate a team, and relied on counterattacking bursts to give them a 3-2 lead to defend in the epic round-of-16 victory over Mexico in the cauldron of the Azteca.

What they have shown is character, in abundance, and they will likely need plenty more of that if they are to end 60 years of longing for a second World Cup title.

The game against Argentina will be far more than 11 vs 11; the ghosts of football history will line up alongside both teams, and the hype and pressure are sure to be enormous.

A few possible positives for England will be that they have already made par for this tournament: Ranked fourth in the world, they have reached the last four. Anything else would be a bonus. Nobody really considers them a top-two team in the world, which might help to alleviate some of the burden of expectation.

After a trip to the altitude of Mexico City, and the oppressive heat and humidity of Miami, a return to the 22-Celsius (71.6F) climate-controlled confines of Atlanta, where England overcame DR Congo in the round of 32, will be welcome.

They also have no new suspensions to deal with, with Jarell Quansah left with one game of his two-match ban to serve; and there were minutes for Reece James against Norway. England will meanwhile be hoping Declan Rice recovers fully after a 45-minute cameo in which he was patently not fit following illness.

An ageing Argentina side have struggled against the pace, movement and trickery of Cape Verde, Egypt and Switzerland in the past three rounds, and Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon, and even Marcus Rashford will be even better placed to exploit that.

Beyond Messi, Argentina have not posed too many attacking questions themselves, though Julian Alvarez’s stunning strike against Switzerland might just be the start of his own World Cup.

All things considered, expect England to make it through to the final, but France would likely be a step too far, and even Spain would be a big ask, despite the additional motivation of revenge for their Euro 2024 final defeat.

2. Spain

They are the third semifinalists yet to find top gear at this tournament, bar a one-sided display against Austria in the round of 32.

La Roja’s stoic defence might have been punctured for the first time this summer by Belgium in the last eight, but the 649 minutes that preceded that goal were the longest streak in World Cup history without conceding, and they have still allowed just seven shots on target in their six matches so far.

Though the goal contribution stats might not reflect it, Lamine Yamal has shown flashes of a return to top form after that season-ending hamstring injury in April, while La Roja’s carousel of tricky attackers has posed problems for defences in all six matches so far, and Mikel Merino has written himself into folklore with last-gasp winners against Portugal and Belgium.

Four-goal leading scorer Mikel Oyarzabal has gone off the boil in the past couple of games, however, and is unlikely to strike too much fear into the French backline.

While teenage defender Pau Cubarsi looks at home on the biggest stage of all, he is yet to face the kind of test that Kylian Mbappe, Michael Olise and Ousmane Dembele will pose.

If they make the final, Spain will be favourites to win it, and they have won the World Cup the only time they previously reached the last four, but despite having beaten France in their past two encounters, a third should be beyond them.

1. France

Before their last-eight matchup with Morocco, we asserted that France were the class of the field with a fearsome foursome in attack and a defence that, although it had not really been tested yet, had only allowed two goals in five matches.

Well, make that two in six, even if they still have not really been tested, such was the Atlas Lions’ toothless attack on the night in their 2-0 defeat.

Mbappe further enhanced his credentials for the Golden Boot and all-time World Cup scoring record with another quality goal against Morocco, and Olise, Dembele, Desire Doue and Bradley Barcola continue to threaten across the field in a way no other team on earth can.

Spain, and in particular their defence, will pose a different challenge, and the underworked French defence will likely get their own test this time, too, with the likes of Dani Olmo, Alex Baena, Ferran Torres and Fabian Ruiz getting into promising positions around Oyarzabal, and that’s not to mention super-sub Merino.

Whoever beats France will surely lift the World Cup, but none of the remaining teams can match the dynamism of Les Bleus’ forwards. Although Spain will likely be their hardest challenge, it is one you can expect Didier Deschamps’s men to overcome, not least fuelled by the additional motivation of having lost to La Roja in the Euro 2024 and Nations League semifinals over the past two years.