To beat Argentina, you first have to quell them, emotionally

The Pumas have risen to their rightful place on the global stage through their strong sense of each other, through their shared purpose and well-defined identity

FAVOURED: Argentina head coach Michael Cheika during the captain's run at the Stade de Marseille. Pic: Mike Egerton/PA Wire

Sat, 09 Sep, 2023 - 07:35

Mick Cleary

It was the noise you heard first, a surge of songs and chants, a tumult on the move. And just what the French players least wanted to hear as the victorious Argentinians cascaded into the Stade de France mixed zone, bound together as one as they celebrated their third-place finish at the 2007 World Cup. That is the sort of collective emotion that England will have to deal with on Saturday night in Marseille. To beat Argentina, you first have to quell them, emotionally as much as physically. Think Gus Pichot and Felipe Contepomi of that era. Think of Lionel Messi at the football World Cup. Passion plays big in Argentine sport.

If England fail in that first basic objective, as Ireland did in Lens in 1999 and France did twice in that 2007 tournament, then they will lose. The Pumas have risen to their rightful place on the global stage through their strong sense of each other, through their shared purpose and well-defined identity. You saw that in the bowels of the Stade France all those years ago just as you saw it on the streets of Buenos Aires when Messi and his mates returned as conquering heroes. World Cups are their kind of gig.