Lionel Messi has done just about everything possible in a glorious career, but the 39-year-old Argentinian great has never taken on England -- he will finally get the chance in Wednesday's World Cup semi-final.

Messi won his 200th cap for the Albiceleste in the group-stage victory against Algeria and dreams of leading his country to the final once again.

The diminutive playmaker is surely in the final days of a remarkable international career which began when he was a fresh-faced 18-year-old in 2005.

Having broken into the Barcelona team late the previous year, Messi had just starred for Argentina as they won the Under-20 World Cup in the Netherlands.

He was handed his Argentina bow by Jose Pekerman in a friendly against Hungary in Budapest that August, replacing Lisandro Lopez in the 64th minute and joining Hernan Crespo up front.  

Ninety seconds later he was sent off for what the referee saw as an elbow. It was quite the ignominious way for his Argentina career to begin.

"An 18-year-old kid who is making his debut for the national team and has so much hope -- he can't be punished like that. The referee needed to be more understanding," said Crespo.

Messi might look back now and laugh at that incident, which led to him being suspended for a friendly against England in Geneva three months later.

The nations have not met since, and so Messi will play against the Three Lions for the very first time under the roof of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

"I have played against everyone except England and it is special because they are a major nation, a powerhouse, and it is always nice to play against a side like that, especially in a World Cup semi-final," said Messi after Argentina beat Switzerland in Kansas City in the last eight.

- Emulating Maradona -

The man who emulated Diego Maradona by inspiring Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar four years ago will now hope to leave a similar mark on England as his legendary predecessor.

Any meeting of these countries evokes memories of the 1986 quarter-final at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, when Maradona punched in to score the 'Hand of God' opener and then ran past half the England defence for his team's second goal -– perhaps the greatest World Cup goal of all time.

Messi has not scored one quite like that, but ahead of the semi-finals of the current tournament he had scored more World Cup goals than any other player.

With 21 goals from a tournament record 32 appearances, he led France skipper Kylian Mbappe by one after the quarter-finals.

The Inter Miami player had found the net in nine consecutive World Cup matches before the Switzerland game, when he let others -- notably Julian Alvarez -- take over the goalscoring duties.

Argentina are now one game away from reaching another World Cup final, as they aim to become the first team to retain the trophy since Brazil in 1962.

It would be a third final in four World Cups, and Messi could follow in the footsteps of Brazil great Cafu. The full-back played in three in a row from 1994 to 2002 –- even Maradona only played in two.

"Getting to another semi-final is not a normal, mundane thing, so this is something we should really enjoy because we don't know if it will happen again," Messi said.

The England players will hope to enjoy it as well.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Nico O'Reilly, who is likely to come up against Messi if he starts at left-back, told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"He's coming towards the end of his career. For me personally, he's the best player to ever touch a football pitch. And yeah, I can't wait for the challenge."

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Jannik Sinner was at his clinical best as he successfully defended his Wimbledon title with a bruising four-set victory over French Open champion Alexander Zverev in Sunday's final.

The world number one recovered from losing the first set in a match largely dominated by serve, eventually wearing Zverev down to secure a 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (7/2), 6-3, 6-4 win.

The Italian was rewarded for his perseverance in an attritional contest with his first Grand Slam title since lifting the trophy at the All England Club 12 months ago.

Sinner's fifth Grand Slam crown is just two behind the majors tally of his injured rival Carlos Alcaraz after notching his 100th match win at tennis' four biggest events.

He hit 58 winners against only 25 unforced errors in three hours and 46 minutes on Centre Court, refusing to buckle against an in-form Zverev who brought a 13-match winning streak at the majors into the final.

Sinner has banished the memories of his shock second-round exit from the French Open at the hands of Juan Manuel Cerundolo when he blew a two-set lead last month.

The closest Sinner came to crashing out of Wimbledon was in the first round when he had to come from behind to beat Miomir Kecmanovic in five sets.

It was plain sailing from then on for Sinner, who has become a fearsome force on grass.

The 24-year-old now boasts a remarkable 44-3 win-loss record this year after winning his sixth title of the season.

Zverev had never even reached the quarter-finals in nine previous visits to Wimbledon, but had been a man reborn in London after finally breaking his Grand Slam duck in Paris.

He managed to take a first set off Sinner in seven meetings, but could not kick on to snap a now 10-match losing streak against a seemingly unbreakable rival.

Zverev, who was bidding to become the first German man to win the trophy since Michael Stich in 1991, will climb above Alcaraz to second in the ATP rankings on Monday.

- Zverev left frustrated -

Zverev saved the only break point of a tight first set dominated by serve as it went to a tie-break.

The first 15 points of the breaker went with serve, with both men saving set points, before Zverev clinched with a fizzing forehand winner.

There were no break points in the second set as the players again efficiently bludgeoned their way to 6-6, but this time Sinner stepped it up in the tie-break to level the match.

Zverev finally created his first break point in the seventh game of the third set, but slipped when Sinner dinked over a drop-shot winner.

He clutched his knee and Sinner crossed the net to check on his injured opponent as the crowd held its breath, but was helped to his feet by the Italian.

Sinner made his move in the next game as Zverev's serve finally broke down.

Zverev threw his racquet angrily across the turf after looping a forehand long on a break point which had seen Sinner lying flat on the turf earlier in the rally.

The top seed immaculately served it out to love, sealing a two-sets-to-one lead with an ace.

Zverev gamely tried to prolong the contest but his race was run when Sinner broke for a 4-3 advantage in the fourth set.

He wrapped up the title on serve despite a dramatic final game featuring arguably the two best rallies of the match, falling to the turf in celebration after slapping away a forehand winner on his first match point.

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Cobbled classics specialist Mathieu van der Poel claimed his third Tour de France win on Sunday with victory in the ninth stage, which was shortened due to intense heat.

The 31-year-old Dutchman, a former world champion, won a sprint amongst his three breakaway companions with Tobias Johannessen taking second and Tom Pidcock third.

"It was a super hard day. The start of the Tour was not great for our team, but I think, like always, we stayed calm," he said.

"We have a really nice group here and we kept believing that it will turn around... but it's really nice to go to the first rest day with a win."

Having worked as a sprint lead-out man for his Alpecin Premier Tech team-mate Jasper Philipsen -- who had finished fourth and fifth in the sprint stages -- in the previous two days, Van der Poel finally had a chance to go for a stage win for himself.

Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar came home in the chasing peloton six seconds behind the winner to maintain his lead in the overall standings ahead of Monday's first rest day.

The four-time champion leads two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard by 2min 42sec with Mexican Isaac del Toro a further 45sec back. 

Van der Poel, a three-time winner of both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix -- the two most important one-day cobbled classics -- had previously won Tour stages in 2021 and 2025.

- 'Horrible' roads -

This stage was shortened by around 30km due to a "red alert" weather warning in the central Correze region.

Temperatures once again reached close to 40C, although in parts on the stage it was nearer 30C. 

There was a furious battle from the beginning of the 154.6km run from Malemort to Ussel to make it into the day's breakaway.

It was not until about halfway through the stage that an eight-man breakaway finally went clear on the steep 3.8km-long Suc au May climb.

The group never eked out a lead of more than a minute and a half but they worked well together.

Van der Poel then attacked out of that group with 25km left on the final categorised climb of the day, the 900m-long, and equally steep, Mont Bessou.

Only Norwegian Johannessen, Frenchman Alex Baudin and Briton Pidcock were able to follow and then it was a full-throttle charge to the finish line with a 50-second lead over the significantly-reduced peloton.

The breakaway riders had plenty in the bag and even slowed down in the final kilometre in a cat-and-mouse game before the final sprint.

But when Van der Poel launched that, it was clear that he would be too strong for the others.

"I was not so sure. I spent a lot of energy trying to keep the break alive," he admitted.

"There was a lot of pressure from the bunch. The roads were horrible for a breakaway with a headwind the whole day.

"We fought for it and I'm happy to finish it off."

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England and Argentina will meet on Wednesday in a blockbuster World Cup semi-final infused with decades of bitter rivalry after they battled past Norway and Switzerland respectively in the quarter-finals.

The South Americans and their talisman Lionel Messi must defeat England in Atlanta to keep alive their hopes of becoming the first team to win back-to-back World Cups since Brazil in 1962.

England and their key partnership of Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane must win to have any hope of ending a 60-year wait for a major trophy.

The winner of that game will take on the victor of France's semi-final with Spain -- they meet in Texas on Tuesday -- in the final on July 19.

The Argentina v England match comes 40 years after a seismic encounter in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

Argentina secured a 2-1 victory at the Estadio Azteca with two goals from Diego Maradona -- one the infamous "Hand of God" when he punched the ball into the net and the other a dazzling solo effort considered one of the greatest goals ever to grace a World Cup.

For Maradona's heir, Messi, it will be his 206th match in an Albiceleste shirt, but his first ever against England.

The match will also take place against the backdrop of a lingering sovereignty dispute over the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, known in Spanish as the Malvinas.

Britain sent a military taskforce in 1982 to reclaim the islands after Argentine troops invaded.

After Argentina beat a dogged Swiss side 3-1 in Kansas City on Saturday thanks to extra-time goals from Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez, their coach Lionel Scaloni attempted to take the political heat out of the meeting with England.

"The message is this is a football game. That's what I can say," Scaloni said. 

"It is a football game and we will be playing against a very tough opponent. They have an excellent coach and this is a football game and that's all."

- 'Very lucky ' -

That coach, Thomas Tuchel, was angry with his England team after they needed extra-time on Saturday to end Norway's historic run in sweltering Miami.

Two goals from Jude Bellingham gave England a nervy 2-1 victory to send them into the semi-finals for only the fourth time in history.

Tuchel said his team would need to make a noticeable improvement if they were to have any chance of reaching the final.

In energy-sapping Florida heat and humidity, England's shaky defence allowed Andreas Schjelderup to unleash a rasping shot from the left to put Norway ahead on 36 minutes.

But England got a huge break in first-half stoppage time when Bellingham equalised after an attack that was initiated when a goal kick from Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland appeared to hit an overhead camera cable.

Norway's players protested in vain and the goal stood. The Norwegians also had a goal controversially disallowed before Bellingham then poached the winner in extra-time.

"We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today," Tuchel said afterwards. 

"The result is fantastic. The last four is amazing, but not happy with the performance... we were very lucky today."

While football's world governing body FIFA later said there was "no evidence" the ball had hit the cable before England's first goal, Norway coach Stale Solbakken was adamant.

"That was unlucky for us," Solbakken said. "The ball fell straight down from the sky, so it changed its direction. But we can't do anything about that."

Erling Haaland, the marauding forward who scored seven goals as Norway reached uncharted waters at the tournament, said his team's performance had inspired a new generation.

"How we put Norway on the map is maybe one thing that touches me the most," said Haaland, who failed to score for the first time in 15 competitive games for his country.

"Hopefully now we can establish something when it comes to Euros, World Cups and everything because our generation is amazing and also all this gives motivation to young people back in Norway that it's possible to play a big stage in the world with a Norwegian shirt."

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