Football Extra newsletter: England's World Cup dream dies a painful death

It was exquisite torture yet again for England and their fans as the chance of World Cup glory was snatched away in the dying minutes of yesterday's semi-final with Argentina. So, what happened – apart from the usual?

The narrative has already developed that Thomas Tuchel bottled it, he cowered before the genius of Lionel Messi going to a back five after taking the lead. He seemed genuinely shocked by this reading of the game when interviewed minutes afterwards.

There were 17 long minutes before he sacrificed Antony Gordon for Ezri Konsa and went to that more defensive formation. A long 17 minutes when he felt they were losing the game, giving up too much space and were on the verge of losing a goal, so he tried the 'Mexico' method: defend with for you lives with as many stout defenders in the box as possible.

Was he right about that whirlwind period when he felt they were disintegrating? In that period Djed Spence made a world-class goal-saving tackle; Enzo Fernandez had a shot just over the bar; Messi put in the first few of his vicious crosses that England struggled to deal with; Pickford saved brilliantly on the line from a header down low to his right; Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni made five personnel changes and they won a number of corners.

England scarcely crossed the half way line during this phase and Paul Robinson said on BBC Radio 5Live: "We are playing too deep with a low block; I don't like it."

Tuchel was correct, his team had fallen back or been pushed back before he made his changes. Had he then made positive substitutions that didn't shore up a back line stretched to breaking point, and they had subsequently lost, he would have been hammered for naïveté.

That is not what the narrative will be and there is no use in Tuchel complaining to the public.

For them he "went negative and it is his fault". That's the job, that's how it works, and all that matters now is whether those who choose the England coach believe in him or the masses.

It is a tough call because until the 86th minute they had just about managed to get there, and that is pretty close.

Undone by greatness

England were beaten by positivity from a world class side who had the ability to change from niggling negativity to flowing attack at the flick of a switch. This switch appears to be situated somewhere in Lionel Messi's brain.

He found the space and started playing in passes and crosses that were almost unstoppable, just when he needed to. The two assists that decided the tie were fantastic even if the first looked more run of the mill.

In this one he had the ball wide on the right, but knew he had to draw more defenders to him to develop the space. This was categorically not a fluke, it was deliberate and calculated to draw Elliot Anderson towards him. Watch again and consider how long he waits to play the ball; Anderson is almost on top of him when he slips it to Fernandez who uses the space Messi has made brilliantly.

The second was bordering on unfair. Two English defenders have him where they want him and 'know' he wants to get the ball on to his left foot, because he 'always' does. But Messi has been biding his time, and knows that they will both slightly overcover on that side, he gives himself a few inches and he needs nothing more.

He goes onto his right foot and a puts in a cross even the greatest right footed player would be proud of, setting up the winner. Everything was calculated and if you can bear it, take a look at the Argentina players after that goal is scored. No one runs to the scorer; every player runs to the genius creator.

Players know when they are in the company of a great if not the greatest player.

Deschamps bows out to disappointment

A French side who had been dishing up delicious performances all tournament suddenly turned sour against the Spanish.

They had been a bit off in a couple of halfs earlier in the tournament. In hindsight these were warnings that the French were more fallible than we wanted to believe.

Adrien Rabiot's early yellow card meant he could no longer cover left back Lucas Digne, which was a shame as the job of coping with Lamine Yamal by himself was way beyond Digne's pay grade. There are a few Everton fans out there who were less than sympathetic towards their former player as he toiled.

The crucial moment was when Digne gave away the penalty and although he clearly didn't mean to kick Yamal as he was blindsided, it was naïve to say the least. Then and there the game slipped away from France's grip but they never had a tight grasp on it anyway.

For all the joy Didier Deschamp's men gave us, this felt like the moment the grown-ups came on the scene.

The French flaws were immediately apparent. Bradley Barcolo looks like he could give Usain Bolt a run for his money but his final ball pass selection is nowhere near as impressive. Ousmane Dembele is infuriatingly sporadic in his performances and even the genius that is Michael Olise has a habit of going missing for long periods in important games.

Deschamps has had a great career as national team manager, but he didn't come up with any special ideas to change things when it started to go wrong.

Could he have brought on Jean Phillipe Mateta up front in the second half, and moved Kylian Mbappe wide, to get the superstar on the ball a bit more? The only changes were like-for-like and that wasn't going to derail the Spanish.

The secret of Spain's success

Spain hadn't exactly lit up the World Cup and my first view of them at this tournament, against Cape Verde, certainly coloured my thinking.

They were slow, predictable and frankly a little dull. I found it hard to connect with them as a team after loving previous iterations that featured the likes of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, David Silva among others.

They have however been playing a version of their style for a long time now and it is undeniably successful. I hoped the new, exciting, attack-centred French outlook would set a course for world football but that method isn't ready to overcome the pure control and tactical sophistication of the Spanish style just yet.

Argentina now have to beat an ideology that has been in place for generations now and it isn't going to be easy.

What is the Spanish secret, apart from being strong in most positions and working well as a group? I suspect it is the fact that if you are only allowed 30% of possession and only a fraction of that in their final third, it is very hard to actually score a goal against them.

And to win World Cup matches, you usually have to score a goal or two.

Why Sunday's final could be a slow burn

So Argentina will face Spain in the final and after watching both semis, I have to admit it is the right match.

Before the tournament I thought it would be France v England at the end but they will have to make do with the 3rd v 4th place play-off – a game that wouldn't even exist in a well-ordered world!

Painful though it is for any England or France supporter, the World Cup has delivered the two best teams into the final and it should be an interesting game.

I use the word interesting because I reckon it might take a while to get exciting.

Both semi-finals took a while to get going, if the France v Spain one ever really did, so prepare for the possibility of a more cerebral match.

If either side score an early goal that might just be the only thing that will save us from this fate.