\n<\/p>\n
Enzo Fernandez helped Argentina reach the 2026 World Cup semi-finals after a dramatic 3-1 extra-time victory over 10-man Switzerland.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Chelsea midfielder started Saturday\u2019s quarter-final in Kansas City as Argentina continued their title defence.<\/p>\n Lionel Scaloni\u2019s side took the lead after 10 minutes. Alexis Mac Allister headed home Lionel Messi\u2019s corner to give the holders an early advantage.<\/p>\n However, Switzerland created several chances and deservedly equalised through Dan Ndoye in the 67th minute.<\/p>\n The game changed five minutes later when Breel Embolo received a controversial second yellow card for simulation. Referee Slavko Vincic reversed his original decision to book Leandro Paredes following a VAR review.<\/p>\n Fern\u00e1ndez completed the opening 90 minutes before Giovani Lo Celso replaced him ahead of extra time.<\/p>\n Argentina struggled to break down Switzerland despite their numerical advantage. However, Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez finally restored the lead with eight minutes of extra time remaining.<\/p>\n The striker curled an excellent 20-yard effort into the top corner before Lautaro Mart\u00ednez completed the\u00a03-1 quarter-final victory\u00a0in added time.<\/p>\n Fern\u00e1ndez has now started six of Argentina\u2019s seven matches at the tournament. He also scored the late winner in the\u00a0dramatic last-16 victory over Egypt.<\/p>\n Argentina will face England in Atlanta on Wednesday for a place in the World Cup final.<\/p>\n The match could put Fern\u00e1ndez against Chelsea team-mates Reece James and Trevoh Chalobah. James returned from injury during England\u2019s extra-time victory over Norway, while Chalobah remained on the bench.<\/p>\n Fern\u00e1ndez played another demanding 90 minutes against Switzerland. His fitness and workload will remain important for Chelsea before he eventually returns to work under Xabi Alonso.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Enzo Fernandez helped Argentina reach the 2026 World Cup semi-finals after a dramatic 3-1 extra-time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez set for Chelsea reunion<\/h2>\n