And then there were two.We now know the World Cup 2026 finalists, after Argentina came from behind to beat England in their semi-final in Atlanta, setting up a potentially terrific final against Spain in New Jersey on Sunday.It’s taken five weeks and 46 teams now know they will not be world champions. Two still carry that hope. Spain will be the favourites, clearly the most coherent team, but there is something astonishing within this Argentina side, who won despite conceding first for the third knockout game in a row.Perhaps their semi-final taught us all a valuable lesson about the difference between the best team and the best set of players.Spain were incredible in beating France, nullifying their remarkable attacking talents at one end and then doing just enough to get the goals they needed at the other. You get the feeling that Spain could have scored a couple more if they wanted, but chose not to, like Muhammad Ali choosing to let George Foreman fall to the canvas in the Rumble In The Jungle, rather than swinging a final punch to really humiliate him.After watching that, it feels like not even this relentless Argentina side stand a chance against them in New Jersey on Sunday. Who would’ve thought this when Spain were drawing 0-0 with Cape Verde a few weeks ago…Astonishing.Argentina’s run to the final has been perhaps the most high-octane sequence of knockout games in football history. They were taken to extra-time by tiny Cape Verde, but found a way to prevail. They were 2-0 down to Egypt with 11 minutes remaining, but found a way to prevail. They went behind to Switzerland, but found a way to prevail. And they were losing 1-0 to England with five minutes left and again found a way to prevail.Was it just because of Lionel Messi? Well, no, because they did require two other players to score the goals, but Messi set them both up and perhaps more importantly remains the spirit and heart of this team, the man everyone else is playing for.They are, objectively, not as strong of a team as Spain. In no world are they the favourites. After such an emotionally draining set of matches, logic points to this one being a step too far. But there hasn’t been much logical about their World Cup to this point, so why start applying it now?Ultimately, Norway were fairly disappointing in their defeat to England.They looked the better side for big chunks of normal time, but when England sat back following Bellingham’s second in extra-time, you felt they could have done more to try to break through.As it was, they politely knocked on the door rather than hammering on it, and they would have stood a much better chance had Erling Haaland been on the pitch until the end.Still, at their first World Cup since 1998, Norway reached the quarter-finals for the first time ever and beat Brazil on the way. The future is surely bright for this special generation of players.Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported which team had the worst goal differential in the tournament. It was Iraq, not Tunisia. The article has been corrected.