England smash into World Cup semi-finals after defeating Norway - with Lionel Messi’s Argentina up next

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England śwept through to the semi-finals thanks to a brilliant Jude Bellingham double, sealing a hard-fought 2-1 extra-time win over Norway in Miami on Saturday.

Argentina meanwhile overcame a mighty effort from a 10-man Switzerland squad to claim a 3-1 extra-time victory in Kansas City.

The two countries will come face to face at the Atlanta Stadium on Wednesday, 15 July at 8 pm (BST).

England and Argentina have met five times before in the World Cup, with England clinching victory in 1962, 1966 and 2002.

Read more: LIVE: England 1-1 Norway as brilliant Bellingham responds to Schjelderup opener

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Argentina has won twice, at Estadio Azteca in 1986 before going on to win the World Cup and in 1998 during penalties.

European champions Spain will face France, who were runners up in 2022, in the other semi-final.

The final will take place at the New York New Jersey Stadium on Sunday, 19 July, 8 pm BST.

As England fans rejoiced following the Three Lions' victory over Norway, a more pessimistic Thomas Tuchel warned the team would need to step up if they are to win the World Cup.

England were given a scare by Norway on Saturday night after Andreas Schjelderup’s opener, but Jude Bellingham struck back before half-time to ensure the Three Lions went into the break on level terms.

The second half brought more drama, with Norway having a goal ruled out after VAR spotted Erling Haaland pushing Elliot Anderson in the build-up, before a deflected effort from a corner crashed against the crossbar.

But England finally found their breakthrough in extra time when Bellingham fired home his second goal of the night.

Meticulous Tuchel said he was “not happy with the performance” – something that got under the skin of Bellingham – but he says they need more in Wednesday’s semi-final against Argentina.

Put to him that Bellingham felt the players had put in a good shift in challenging conditions, the England boss said: “Absolutely, no one disputes that. I am impressed with the shift that they put in.

“The effort, team spirit, the belief and to overcome adversity and to dig in and find ways to win is on the absolutely highest level. They cannot get enough praise for that.

“But I’m also a football coach and I think we can play better. In general, I think it was not a high-level game. I think we had better games in general.”

He continued: “We had a lot of momentum swings for both teams, so, yeah, full credit to the team. We found a way. We’re in the last four.

“This is, of course, the most important but the analysing head of me and the football coach in me still thinks that we can and have to play better football.”

Tuchel and Bellingham made their initial comments with emotions still high after a difficult match was decided by the Real Madrid maestro, who picked up his fourth man of the match award of the summer.

“World class,” the England boss said. “World class performance from a world-class player in big, big moments, in crucial moments, so absolute top class.”

Bellingham dragged England through their latest knockout test, with Tuchel conceding they rode their luck having overcome the Democratic Republic of Congo and co-hosts Mexico.

Norway not only had opportunities to win the quarter-final but were aggrieved that Bellingham’s opener was allowed to stand after the ball appeared to hit overhead camera wires.

FIFA said the “connected ball” showed no evidence of that and Tuchel said: “Yeah, I heard that.

“But there’s a chip in the ball that can tell you if a hair touches it, as we know since the Croatia v Portugal game, so they should be able to tell you if it happened.

“I was not aware of it, I didn’t see it, and FIFA said (their statement) and I think we just got lucky in decisive moments.

“I’m not saying that we are lucky to win, but we are lucky in decisive moments that could have gone the other way.

“We were lucky to not be 2-0 down with a big mistake in the deep build-up.

“We were lucky in the end (with the disallowed Norway goal). Even if it’s the right decision, you always need a bit of luck that a referee overturns a goal and then decides that, in the build-up of the goal, the ball was not in play, there was a foul.

“So, in these moments, we were lucky. I stand with that. Not that overall.

“There’s also nothing wrong. No one ever denied that you need luck to go in tournament football.

“You need moments where you’re lucky otherwise it’s just not possible. I see no harm in admitting it and it’s just the way I felt today.”