{"id":29161,"date":"2026-07-12T12:46:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T07:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161"},"modified":"2026-07-12T12:46:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T07:01:42","slug":"world-cup-semi-final-showdown-set-after-argentina-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161","title":{"rendered":"World Cup semi-final showdown set after Argentina victory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Kathmandu-<\/strong> The semi-final lineup for the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been confirmed after Argentina defeated Switzerland 3-1 in the final quarterfinal securing the last remaining place in the tournament&#8217;s final four.<br><br>The completion of the quarterfinal stage has taken the World Cup into its decisive phase with Argentina, England, Spain and France advancing to the semi-finals. All four remaining teams have won the FIFA World Cup at least once.<br><br>Argentina booked its semi-final berth with goals from Alexis Mac Allister, Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez and Lautaro Mart\u00ednez against Switzerland.<br><br>England also progressed after defeating Norway by 2-1 in another quarterfinal. Spain and France had earlier secured their places in the last four by defeating Belgium and Morocco respectively.<br><br>The first semi-final will see Spain face France on Wednesday at 12:45 am (Nepal time). France won the FIFA World Cup in 1998 and 2018 while Spain lifted its only World Cup title in 2010.<br><br>The second semi-final will feature defending champion Argentina against England on Thursday at 12:45 am (Nepal time). Argentina has won the World Cup three times in 1978, 1986 and 2022, while England claimed its only title in 1966.<br><br>Argentina enters the match seeking to defend its World Cup crown for a second consecutive tournament while England aims to return to the top of world football after nearly six decades.<br><br>The 2026 FIFA World Cup final is scheduled to be played on July 19 at New Jersey Stadium in New York. The two semi-final matches will determine which teams advance to compete for football&#8217;s biggest prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu- The semi-final lineup for the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been confirmed after Argentina defeated Switzerland 3-1 in the final quarterfinal securing the last remaining place in the tournament&#8217;s final four. The completion of the quarterfinal stage has taken the World Cup into its decisive phase with Argentina, England, Spain and France advancing to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>World Cup semi-final showdown set after Argentina victory - KathmanduPati<\/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:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"World Cup semi-final showdown set after Argentina victory - KathmanduPati\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kathmandu- The semi-final lineup for the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been confirmed after Argentina defeated Switzerland 3-1 in the final quarterfinal securing the last remaining place in the tournament&#8217;s final four. The completion of the quarterfinal stage has taken the World Cup into its decisive phase with Argentina, England, Spain and France advancing to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"KathmanduPati\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kathmandupatienglish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-12T07:01:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-12T07:01:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/semi-final.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"659\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"KathmanduPati\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"KathmanduPati\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"KathmanduPati\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bbe4e117cde7a3a56af3321608bf6b37\"},\"headline\":\"World Cup semi-final showdown set after Argentina victory\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-12T07:01:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-12T07:01:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161\"},\"wordCount\":257,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/semi-final.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161\",\"name\":\"World Cup semi-final showdown set after Argentina victory - KathmanduPati\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/semi-final.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-12T07:01:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-12T07:01:42+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/semi-final.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/semi-final.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":659},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"World Cup semi-final showdown set after Argentina victory\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/\",\"name\":\"KathmanduPati\",\"description\":\"voice of a changing era\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"RB Media House Pvt. Ltd\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/cropped-kp-icon.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/cropped-kp-icon.jpg\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"RB Media House Pvt. Ltd\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kathmandupatienglish\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bbe4e117cde7a3a56af3321608bf6b37\",\"name\":\"KathmanduPati\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2699dbc3337f2585abec1155f4432d9c79967e6f836949fbd4e187c84bc3ebc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2699dbc3337f2585abec1155f4432d9c79967e6f836949fbd4e187c84bc3ebc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"KathmanduPati\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"World Cup semi-final showdown set after Argentina victory - KathmanduPati","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"World Cup semi-final showdown set after Argentina victory - KathmanduPati","og_description":"Kathmandu- The semi-final lineup for the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been confirmed after Argentina defeated Switzerland 3-1 in the final quarterfinal securing the last remaining place in the tournament&#8217;s final four. The completion of the quarterfinal stage has taken the World Cup into its decisive phase with Argentina, England, Spain and France advancing to [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161","og_site_name":"KathmanduPati","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kathmandupatienglish","article_published_time":"2026-07-12T07:01:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-12T07:01:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":659,"url":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/semi-final.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"KathmanduPati","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"KathmanduPati","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161"},"author":{"name":"KathmanduPati","@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bbe4e117cde7a3a56af3321608bf6b37"},"headline":"World Cup semi-final showdown set after Argentina victory","datePublished":"2026-07-12T07:01:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-12T07:01:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161"},"wordCount":257,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/semi-final.png","articleSection":["Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161","url":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161","name":"World Cup semi-final showdown set after Argentina victory - KathmanduPati","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/semi-final.png","datePublished":"2026-07-12T07:01:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-12T07:01:42+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/semi-final.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/semi-final.png","width":1200,"height":659},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?p=29161#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"World Cup semi-final showdown set after Argentina victory"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/","name":"KathmanduPati","description":"voice of a changing era","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#organization","name":"RB Media House Pvt. Ltd","url":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/cropped-kp-icon.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/cropped-kp-icon.jpg","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"RB Media House Pvt. Ltd"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kathmandupatienglish"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bbe4e117cde7a3a56af3321608bf6b37","name":"KathmanduPati","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2699dbc3337f2585abec1155f4432d9c79967e6f836949fbd4e187c84bc3ebc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2699dbc3337f2585abec1155f4432d9c79967e6f836949fbd4e187c84bc3ebc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"KathmanduPati"},"url":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29163,"href":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29161\/revisions\/29163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.kathmandupati.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}