{"id":39327,"date":"2026-07-15T02:22:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T02:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/argentina-star-retracts-england-comments-on-eve-of-world-cup-semi-final-soccer-sports\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T02:22:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T02:22:27","slug":"argentina-star-retracts-england-comments-on-eve-of-world-cup-semi-final-soccer-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/argentina-star-retracts-england-comments-on-eve-of-world-cup-semi-final-soccer-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina star retracts England comments on eve of World Cup semi-final | Soccer | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Alexis Mac Allister has reversed his comments about England&#8217;s World Cup chances two months ago. Mac Allister is hoping to be part of the Argentina team and end the Three Lions&#8217; campaign in North America on Wednesday night. The World Cup holders, captained by eight-goal Lionel Messi, will face England in Atlanta this Sunday for a place in the final. The two countries have not faced each other since 2005, and their first World Cup match in 24 years is bound to reignite tensions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-mce-linkchecker-status=\"valid\">It is notable that when Mac Allister was interviewed by Jamie Redknapp at Liverpool&#8217;s training ground in May, he did not mention England when talking about who he thought would win the tournament. &#8220;Spain and France are really strong, but I always feel that Argentina and Brazil have a chance. Even in Brazil, which is not the best of times, we have (Carlo) Ancelotti now and we have good players, so I think we have a chance. But for us, maybe&#8230;&#8221; Redknapp also pointed out that the 27-year-old midfielder had not mentioned England.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Mac Allister then turned to Dominik Szoboszlai. He sat down next to them, expressionless and trying to hold back his laughter. He replied: &#8220;Do you think we have a chance?&#8221; But the Liverpool player&#8217;s response was not shown after Redknapp pointed out he was asking Mac Allister.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Ahead of Wednesday&#8217;s frenetic semi-final, Sky Sports&#8217; Gary Cotterill asked Mac Allister after Argentina&#8217;s training session: &#8220;You said before the World Cup you weren&#8217;t considering England as one of the favorites to win. Are you surprised they&#8217;ve made it this far? Do you like them now?&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>However, manager Mac Allister has retracted this, emphasizing his high praise for Thomas Tuchel&#8217;s team, who are now just two wins away from becoming England&#8217;s second-ever World Cup champion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&#8220;No, I&#8217;m not surprised. I understand what you&#8217;re saying because it was an interview that Jamie was doing at Liverpool. It was a bit of a joke because at the same time I said that, they shouldn&#8217;t have been in this situation. I said they&#8217;ve got great players and they&#8217;ve got a really good coach.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&#8220;So I&#8217;m not surprised, I&#8217;m not surprised. Like I said, they have very good players, they know what they&#8217;re doing and they have great ideas. We really respect them and we&#8217;re going to do everything we can to win.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Mac Allister has been in the Premier League since joining Brighton in 2019. He left the Seagulls in the summer of 2023 to join Liverpool for \u00a335m (rising to \u00a355m with add-ons). He went on to win the league with the Reds, making 150 appearances at Anfield and scoring 19 goals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The Irish midfielder has scored seven goals in 52 appearances for Argentina, scoring the opening goal in Argentina&#8217;s 3-1 quarter-final win over Switzerland. Ten minutes into the match, Mac Allister headed in Lionel Messi&#8217;s corner kick.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The South American team has won all six of their World Cup matches so far, scoring three goals in five games and two in the other matches. The talismanic Messi has eight goals and two assists, six times more than his La Albiceleste teammate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The semi-final against England, to be played at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, known as the Atlanta Stadium of the World Cup due to sponsorship reasons, will be the first time Argentina have played their rivals since November 2005. At the Stade de Gen\u00e8ve in Switzerland, Michael Owen scored a second late goal to seal a 3-2 win.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/football\/2229151\/Argentina-England-World-Cup-semi-final-Alexis-Mac-Allister\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alexis Mac Allister has reversed his comments about England&#8217;s World Cup chances two months ago. Mac Allister is hoping to be part of the Argentina team and end the Three Lions&#8217; campaign in North America on Wednesday night. The World Cup holders, captained by eight-goal Lionel Messi, will face England in Atlanta this Sunday for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-matches"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Argentina star retracts England comments on eve of World Cup semi-final | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/argentina-star-retracts-england-comments-on-eve-of-world-cup-semi-final-soccer-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Argentina star retracts England comments on eve of World Cup semi-final | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alexis Mac Allister has reversed his comments about England&#8217;s World Cup chances two months ago. 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