Hey Jude, don’t make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better. Remember to let her into your heart. Then you can start to make it better. Hey Jude, don’t be afraid. You were made to go out and get her. The minute you let her under your skin. Then you begin to make it better.Paul McCartney wrote an early version of Hey Jude titled Hey Jules to comfort John Lennon’s son Julian, who was going through a rather hard time when His Highness Imagine Singhji – it would be a few years before he wrote the communist anthem – broke up with Cynthia Lennon to be with Japanese artist Yoko Ono. Many years later, the song has been repurposed by English football fans for their talisman Jude Bellingham, who scored a brace against BFF Haaland’s Norway.England has always had stars, but they have never quite had a Bellingham, a Birmingham lad who went on to Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid, with a very un-English upbringing, who became the first player since Diego Maradona to score braces in back-to-back knockout matches and has set up a showdown with the inheritor of Maradona’s legacy: Lionel Messi. The delicious historical symmetry is Maradona’s knockout breaces came against England and Belgium, with the man reproducing Maradona’s magic tasked with exorcising the ghost of Argentina. Like Faisal Khan from Gangs of Wasseypur, England has unfinished business: a nation that has tormented the Three Lions often. Just ask Sir David Beckham, who was sent off in 1998 for sticking out his leg. Or Peter Shilton, who could never quite get over the tiny Maradona jumping up to punch the ball past him and to this day blocks anyone on Twitter for pointing out that fact.
Argentina and England have spent decades exchanging trauma. Antonio Rattín’s dismissal and Alf Ramsey’s “animals” remark in 1966; Maradona’s hand and feet in 1986; Michael Owen’s wonder goal, Beckham’s red card and Simeone’s theatrics in 1998; Beckham’s penalty of redemption in 2002. The rivalry has never required frequent meetings because each meeting produces enough resentment to last several years.In a match billed the Battle of Apex Predators – Kane vs Haaland – it was Bellingham who stole their thunder and continued to roil even after the match, where he hit back at his own coach.While Thomas Tuchel called the result fantastic, he called the performance “sloppy with a lot of technical mistakes”. An unimpressed Bellingham questioned his own coach’s playing credentials. “Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those kinds of conditions against Erling Haaland, Ødegaard, Nusa, Sørloth. That’s not an easy team to play against. So, I think we’ve tried to create a positive environment. You’re not going to win every game, popping the ball and making a thousand passes. Sometimes you have to win dirty, and we’ve done that again tonight.”This was a match that had all the drama, and it wasn’t simple sailing for the Three Lions, who were dependent on Bellingham for two moments of pure magic: the first a twisting dance to finish past three defenders and the second pouncing faster than anyone else in extra time.Bellingham’s evening was even more remarkable when you consider that England lost Rice at half-time forcing him to drop deeper and yet have the wind his sails to find the goal. In between, there was controversy, with Norway claiming that goalkeeper Nyland’s long goal-kick had hit a spidercam wire, making the ball “drop from heaven”, though FIFA said the ball’s sensor noted no such contact.It wasn’t quite a beach volleyball deflecting a goal, but Norway argued that the cable led to possession under false circumstances.Another talking point was Norway’s disallowed goal, which saw Haaland push Elliott Anderson in the penalty box. England also had a penalty overturned, which meant three major decisions: the spidercam controversy, the disallowed goal and the penalty overturn with VAR.One obvious concern witll be the dependency on Kane and Bellingham who have scored 12 of 13 goals so far. This was the first match in which Erling Haaland failed to score after 14 consecutive games. It was bittersweet for the Norseman, given that it was one of his closest mates who will get a shot instead. Haaland said he wasn’t “surprised” that Jude scored two.None of the English will disagree with the Yorkshire-born Norway legend, as evident from them belting out Hey Jude after the match ended, with even Sir David Beckham joining in from the stands with his family. Next up: Lionel Messi and Argentina.Argentina, meanwhile, reached the semi-final looking far less convincing than the 3-1 scoreline might suggest. Alexis Mac Allister’s early header should have settled the champions, but they allowed Switzerland back into the match, with Dan Ndoye equalising in the second half and threatening to turn another Argentine knockout game into a prolonged international anxiety attack. Then there was the bizarre Breel Embolo dismissal for mistaken idenity that could be part of the conspiracy plot that has seen football fans call La Alcibesta “Vargentina”.
Embolo was sent off when Switzerland were on the ascendancy that saw his opponent get a yellow card before a VAR re-check showed that he had dived earning him a second yelllow. The twist is that if there was no VAR check, Embolo wouldn’t have got it. With Messi looking his age finally – this was the first match where neither Messi nor Haaland found the net – a Julian Alvarez thunderbolt in the 112 minute and a late Lautoro Martinez goal produced a scoreline that doesn’t quite describe the match. The match saw Messi even lose his cool, channeling his inner Mourinho telling the Portuguese referee Joao Pinheiro to “talk to him properly and not to disrespect him” that immediately became a footnote in the Ronaldo vs Messi culture war. That said, both England and Argentina arrive in the match with similar anxieties: teams that haven’t been at their very best but have found a way to get past the finish line with moments of brilliance.
This is the first time that the world cup semi finals feature the top four teams in the world. Spain versus France will pit Lamine Yamal against Kylian Mbappe and a French side that has looked almost untouchable. England versus Argentina carries more baggage: Messi’s last dance, Bellingham’s coming of age and six decades of footballing resentment.For England, Argentina has always been YESTERDAY, a memory that refuses to fade. The road back has been LONG AND WINDING, filled with hands, red cards, penalties and heartbreak. Now the Three Lions must COME TOGETHERbehind the Birmingham boy who has already dragged them this far.England have spent decades asking for HELPwhenever Argentina appear. This time, they have Jude. LET IT BEenough. To borrow a line from another famous Englishman: IMAGINEthere’s no heartbreak. It’s easy if you try…
